tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69297013266798899652017-07-29T02:18:54.449-07:00The Rose and the ThistleAn Anglo-Scottish royalist and unionist's blogThe King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-1620811445555201932015-05-15T10:16:00.002-07:002015-05-15T10:16:49.972-07:00Prince Charles' Letters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DmryfSCkh90/VVYpyA9hnFI/AAAAAAAAAOY/bcDePWbHRFY/s1600/prince-charles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DmryfSCkh90/VVYpyA9hnFI/AAAAAAAAAOY/bcDePWbHRFY/s320/prince-charles.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>This week the British monarchy was hit by a devastating scandal. Republicans rejoiced as the Royal Family hung their heads in shame. The whole country, irrespective of class, creed and colour, reeled from the revelation that the Prince of Wales, the future King of the United Kingdom, had written to the Prime Minister... And expressed concerns that the military didn't have the equipment they needed to do their jobs. That's not all, of course. His Royal Highness also had the temerity to campaign for better rights for British farmers being underpaid by major supermarket chains and lobbied to protect wild albatrosses by conserving the Patagonian Toothfish, a key food species. It is, of course, utterly unacceptable for the future head of state to have views on such things.<div><br /></div><div>Of course, I'm being sarcastic here. No one is more enthusiastic about the Royal Family taking the initiative to actively advise the Government and contribute to policy decisions, especially on issues where they have some degree of expertise. Prince Charles is well-qualified, after his long years of campaigning, to pass comments on matters such as architecture, building preservation, environmental affairs and conservation. Of course, no one will agree with His Royal Highness on absolutely everything. I for one was disappointed that the Prince took a position in support of badger culling- probably the most controversial issue he involved himself in- and lack his enthusiasm for "alternative" medicine. Even so, I have no objection to the future king expressing his views in private to ministers. Indeed, it is the right of any British citizen to write to the Government. Most would consider it utterly inappropriate for any such letter from a private individual to the Government to be openly published without the person's consent. And yet, the Supreme Court has ruled that the same right to privacy does not belong to members of the Royal Family.</div><div><br /></div><div>The letters, all from ten years ago when the UK was under the Labour Government of Tony Blair, were published after a decade-long campaign by the notably Left-wing newspaper The Guardian, which is known for its strong views on "free speech" (which in the past has extended to leaking information sensitive to national security) as well as its flirtations with republicanism. If journalists were hoping for a sensational headline, they were disappointed- besides the Prince's comments on badger culling, the matters discussed in the letters were mundane and the Prince's positions largely uncontroversial. Clarence House issued a statement that "the publication of private letters can only inhibit [Prince Charles'] ability to express the concerns and suggestions which have been put to him in the course of his travels and meetings." Despite this, prior to the letters' publication the Prince and his staff were said to be "sanguine" over the decision, perhaps realising that nothing in the letters cast the Prince in a seriously bad light.</div><div><br /></div><div>Indeed, many of Charles' positions seem eminently sensible; he lobbied for the British Government to help conserve the Antarctic huts built by explorers Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton during their polar expeditions as part of our cultural heritage (in Charles' own words, "I just wanted to emphasize the iconic importance of these huts in those great Antarctic journeys which will surely resonate strongly in the public imagination"), requested that historic buildings be listed by English Heritage thus protecting them from redevelopment, campaigned for the retention of the Hill Farming Allowance for upland farmers, claiming hill regions are "the most beautiful areas of the country which tourists flock to see, and yet they are the most difficult areas to farm and are the most disadvantaged in every way for those who live there," and expressed concern over reports that the army's Lynx helicopters performed poorly in high temperatures, telling Tony Blair that "I fear that this is just one more example of where our Armed Forces are being asked to do an extremely challenging job (particularly in Iraq) without the necessary resources."&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Despite the overwhelming response of the British public being "so what?", republicans have attempted to spin this nontroversy into a major scandal. Traitorous Labour MP Paul Flynn called for a referendum on whether Charles should succeed his mother as monarch, stating that "Charles has proved himself to be the mouthpiece of sensible views, eccentric views, and barmy views." He went on to say that "as we are not living in a medieval state, the public should have a say into who should be the head of state: should it be Charles, or should it be William, who has the gift of his mother in remaining politically silent and inert." The Hon. Gentleman is apparently unaware of how hereditary monarchies work. Unsurprisingly, fringe anti-monarchist group Republic wasted no time in pursuing the headlines, their miserable leader Graham Smith declaring that "the government must now act to end royal secrecy. Any risk to the monarchy from disclosure must pale against a risk to democracy from having an activist prince acting in secret." Some of the criticisms from the press are simply inexplicable- the Mirror Online seemed to think it was <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/prince-charles-letters-11-things-5692749">significant</a>&nbsp;that then-education secretary Charles Clarke ended one letter to the Prince with the phrase "I have the honour to be, Sir, Your Royal Highness's most humble and obedient servant". Apparently no one in the Mirror's offices knew that this is the customary way to close a letter to a member of the Royal Family.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ultimately the response to the letters' publication has been muted, much to the disappointment of those who wish to undermine the monarchy. After ten years and around £400,000 of taxpayers' money being wasted, these letters have only confirmed what we all already know about Prince Charles; that he is a passionate campaigner with strong views on a range of topics which, without his tireless lobbying, would probably never get the recognition they deserve. The Prince has reportedly been writing to ministers since he was sixteen years old, and he's not going to stop now. I hope he never does.&nbsp;</div>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-20298453493747428682015-05-09T14:35:00.001-07:002015-05-09T14:35:54.572-07:00Thoughts on the General Election<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/2015UKElectionMap.svg/614px-2015UKElectionMap.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/2015UKElectionMap.svg/614px-2015UKElectionMap.svg.png" height="390" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A map showing the outcome of the 2015 UK general election.</td></tr></tbody></table>Thursday 7th May 2015 was a significant day for the United Kingdom. After five years of government by a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, the British people had the opportunity to decide who would govern the nation for the next five years. It was a tense campaign; the major parties, the Conservatives and Labour, were neck and neck right up to the last minute, and all involved predicted that we would once again end up with a hung parliament- meaning another coalition government. The Conservatives sternly warned of the dangers of a Labour government propped up by the left-wing separatist Scottish National Party, whilst on the other side of the fence the Left flagged up the possibility of a Conservative-led government backed by the United Kingdom Independence Party and the Democratic Unionist Party, both well to the right of the UK's political spectrum. So everyone was shocked when exit polls predicted that the Conservatives would do much better than previously expected. What completely blew commentators out of the water was that the Conservatives actually did even <i>better </i>than the exit polls suggested, winning, against all odds, a majority of the Commons- albeit a small one.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wmAhFPwACGI/VU57n3OQlTI/AAAAAAAAAN8/1L8mtpQiwhQ/s1600/o-NICK-CLEGG-570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wmAhFPwACGI/VU57n3OQlTI/AAAAAAAAAN8/1L8mtpQiwhQ/s320/o-NICK-CLEGG-570.jpg" width="224" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Liberal Democrat leader&nbsp;Nick Clegg <br />resigned after&nbsp;his party's annihilation<br />at the polls on Thursday</td></tr></tbody></table>And so the next day, David Cameron was able to walk into Buckingham Palace with a swagger in his step, and inform Her Majesty the Queen he was ready to form a new government. Labour's leader, Ed Miliband, soon announced his resignation, Labour HQ having admitted during the night that everyone had already accepted that he had no other choice. The real losers, however, were the Liberal Democrats- having alienated their core voters by allying with the Tories and abandoning their core pledge to vote against any rise in tuition fees, they were reduced to a measly 8 seats, with a lower proportion of the overall vote than UKIP. Despite holding his own seat, LibDem leader Nick Clegg also resigned. Despite massive gains for his party, UKIP's Nigel Farage, too, resigned as party leader, as he promised he would should he fail to win the South Thanet constituency where he was running against Conservative Craig Mackinlay, ironically a former UKIP member himself. Farage did, however, suggest he might "throw his hat in" for re-election as UKIP's leader, showing he's not prepared to give up the reigns of power just yet. At any rate, despite receiving&nbsp;12.6% of the vote- coming third after the Tories and Labour- UKIP ended up with only one seat as a consequence of the UK's first past the post electoral system.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MDXmiUfWPcc/VU57jVLh9DI/AAAAAAAAAN0/GTvEq8xHpGM/s1600/Nicola%2BSturgeon%2BStarts%2BTour%2BScotland%2B_xmtNSobR-gl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MDXmiUfWPcc/VU57jVLh9DI/AAAAAAAAAN0/GTvEq8xHpGM/s320/Nicola%2BSturgeon%2BStarts%2BTour%2BScotland%2B_xmtNSobR-gl.jpg" width="211" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nicola Sturgeon replaced<br />Alex Salmond as SNP leader<br />&nbsp;after the nationalists<br />lost the 2014 referendum<br />on independence.</td></tr></tbody></table>Scotland, meanwhile, was swept by the SNP. Despite receiving only 4.7% of the national (UK-wide) vote, they won 58 seats, taking virtually the whole of Scotland. For unionists hoping that they had cut the head off the beast in the 2014 referendum, the result is depressing. On Friday morning, former SNP leader Alex Salmond was quoted as saying that "the Scottish lion has roared this morning across the country." With England and much of Wales a sea of Tory blue with a handful of islands of Labour red, and Scotland turned the SNP's bright yellow, it's easy to fear for the future of the United Kingdom; the political divide north and south of the border seems greater than ever. Today Salmond declared he would see Scottish independence in his lifetime, despite the 2014 referendum being trumpeted as a "once in a generation opportunity." But Salmond may be talking too soon. The SNP may have swept Scotland's seats, but they won only around 50% of Scotland's vote; a spectacular triumph, true, but hardly overwhelming evidence that Scots have changed their mind on independence. Nicola Sturgeon remains tight-lipped on the possibility of another referendum. One more referendum may be around the corner, however- one on the UK's continued membership of the European Union, one of the Tories' flagship promises in their manifesto, and a commitment reiterated by David Cameron in his victory speech yesterday.<br /><br />Ultimately, it is clear this election will be remembered as a significant event in British political history; the best ever result for a separatist party in British politics, a totally unexpected majority for the Conservatives, and quite possibly the beginning of the run-up to the UK's first referendum on our role in Europe since 1975. The latter is all the more significant because euroscepticism is so much weaker north of the border. There are fears that, if the UK as a whole voted in favour of leaving the EU, the stridently pro-European SNP would seek to take Scotland out of Europe in order to remain an EU member state. But if we look at the actual results from this last general election, it becomes clear the SNP's gains aren't so significant as they appear. There remains hope for unionists that our United Kingdom can be saved, and it now falls to David Cameron to keep the promises made to the Scottish people after the 2014 referendum. If Cameron fails to keep his word, it may spell the end of Great Britain as a nation. But if Westminster fulfills its promises, there might yet be a chance that the nationalist hydra can be slain for once and for all.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BQ4uOiidMJ8/VU59qx1eo9I/AAAAAAAAAOI/uhzxcCS4GJ8/s1600/GTY_scotland_flag_union_jack_jef_140910_16x9_992.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BQ4uOiidMJ8/VU59qx1eo9I/AAAAAAAAAOI/uhzxcCS4GJ8/s320/GTY_scotland_flag_union_jack_jef_140910_16x9_992.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-50819477426067177722015-03-10T08:44:00.000-07:002015-03-10T08:44:29.014-07:00The First Scottish Prime Minister<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xCNdKqaGtdI/VP8P_uUopMI/AAAAAAAAANk/snt_hBEZEDI/s1600/earl_of_bute.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xCNdKqaGtdI/VP8P_uUopMI/AAAAAAAAANk/snt_hBEZEDI/s1600/earl_of_bute.jpg" height="198" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute</td></tr></tbody></table>Today is the 10th March, and the 223rd anniversary of the death of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain to have been born in Scotland. He was a prominent Tory, a favourite of His Majesty King George III, and has been called the last important royal favourite in British history. "Important" might be stretching it, as while he served as Prime Minister of His Britannic Majesty's Government, Lord Bute's premiership was not especially successful. His principal achievement was negotiating an end to the Seven Years' War that had raged between the great powers of Europe since 1754. Most of Europe's great powers- including Great Britain, France, Prussia, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Russia- were involved in the war, as were the native American tribes caught in the clash between the British and French colonial empires, many of the smaller states of the Holy Roman Empire, and even the Indian Muslim Mughal Empire which allied with the French against Great Britain in the Indian subcontinent. The principal players, however, were the old rivals Britain and France, and the peace settlement Bute oversaw was highly favourable to the nascent British Empire.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AQNiFnRg5YM/VP8P9FVnWSI/AAAAAAAAANc/5A4u8_G6zAU/s1600/GeorgeIII.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AQNiFnRg5YM/VP8P9FVnWSI/AAAAAAAAANc/5A4u8_G6zAU/s1600/GeorgeIII.jpg" height="200" width="153" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">His Majesty King George III<br />of Great Britain, Bute's &nbsp;monarch <br />and patron</td></tr></tbody></table>Unfortunately for Bute, this won him little popularity with the public. His was a time when monarchs appointed Prime Ministers based on their personal prerogative rather than who could command a parliamentary majority, and Bute rose to power thanks to his close connections to King George III, whom he had tutored prior to George's accession to the throne. He had also been close to George's father, Frederick, Prince of Wales, whose death in 1751 made George the new heir apparent. Bute's closeness to Frederick's wife Augusta, the Dowager Princess of Wales, following the prince's death invited scandal and rumours of an affair, although contemporary sources report that Bute was happily married to his wife Mary and had strong religious objections to adultery. Nonetheless, these rumours, coupled with the fact that Bute was a Scotsman and an extremely unpopular attempt to tax the production of cider to help pay off the debt from the Seven Years' War, meant that Bute faced stiff opposition from the English population.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V0wowroqatk/VP8P1ud4SKI/AAAAAAAAANU/8vAsWCMfxOo/s1600/220px-Augusta_of_Saxe-Gotha%2C_Princess_of_Wales_by_Charles_Philips_cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V0wowroqatk/VP8P1ud4SKI/AAAAAAAAANU/8vAsWCMfxOo/s1600/220px-Augusta_of_Saxe-Gotha%2C_Princess_of_Wales_by_Charles_Philips_cropped.jpg" height="200" width="125" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Augusta of<br />Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg,<br />Dowager Princess of Wales</td></tr></tbody></table>Bute finally resigned from office in&nbsp;April 1763. He was nonetheless suspected of retaining some influence over the King, to the point that in May 1765 his successor George Grenville made the King promise not to appoint Bute to office or seek his advice in the future. The 3rd Earl of Bute spent the rest of his life pursuing a lifelong interest in botany and patronising the arts. A genus of flower,&nbsp;<i>Stuartia</i>, is named after him. Although he spent his last days in England, he never forgot the country of his birth, giving generously to Scottish universities and being buried at Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, from whence his title was derived. His son John succeeded him as the 4th Earl of Bute before being created the 1st Marquess of Bute in 1794. Although Bute's Scottish origins may have contributed to his unpopularity in England at a time when Scotland was still seen very much as a foreign country, his unpopular term as Prime Minister nonetheless illustrates that Scots held high office in the Kingdom of Great Britain after the union and played a significant role in the birth of the British Empire. Far from being seen as colonial subjects of England, the Scottish were treated as partners in the union, if not quite <i>equal</i>&nbsp;partners, or popular ones, for that matter.<br /><br />The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-29858856603578115622015-01-30T10:08:00.003-08:002015-01-30T10:35:58.544-08:00Anniversary of Regicide<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OAff6apTNDA/VMvATRtDauI/AAAAAAAAAMk/r5lIlJpNgUY/s1600/Charles_I_Three_positions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OAff6apTNDA/VMvATRtDauI/AAAAAAAAAMk/r5lIlJpNgUY/s1600/Charles_I_Three_positions.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today is the 30th January. On this day in 1649, His Majesty Charles I, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, was executed on the orders of a kangaroo court. The previous day, he had seen the two of his children who remained in England (Princess Elizabeth and Prince Henry) for the final time, bidding them a tearful farewell; he reminded his son, Henry, that his elder brothers the future kings Charles II and James II and VII were ahead of him in the line of succession, and so he must not allow the parliamentarians to set him up as a puppet king in his brothers' place. The Princess Elizabeth later recorded the exchange; Charles said, "Heed, my child, what I say: they will cut off my head and perhaps make thee a king. But mark what I say. Thou must not be a king as long as thy brothers Charles and James do live; for they will cut off your brothers' heads when they can catch them, and cut off thy head too at the last, and therefore I charge you, do not be made a king by them." The young prince replied, "I will be torn in pieces first!"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Famously, the condemned king wore two shirts on the day of his execution so as to not feel the cold, saying that he did not want to shiver and give the spectators the false impression that he was afraid of death. The king gave one last speech from the scaffold before his death, professing his innocence of the crimes he was accused of; "indeed, I could hold my peace very well, if I did not think that holding my peace would make some men think that I did submit to the guilt as well as to the punishment. &nbsp;But I think it is my duty to God first and to my country for to clear myself both as an honest man and a good King, and a good Christian." The king insisted that he was not responsible for beginning the civil war. He told the onlookers, "all the world knows that I never did begin a war with the two Houses of Parliament. And I call God to witness, to whom I must shortly make an account, that I never did intend for to encroach upon their privileges. They began upon me, it is the Militia they began upon, they confest that the Militia was mine, but they thought it fit for to have it from me.&nbsp; And, to be short, if any body will look to the dates of Commissions, of their commissions and mine, and likewise to the Declarations, will see clearly that they began these unhappy troubles, not I." At the same time, he exonerated Parliament of the blame; "God forbid that I should lay it upon the two Houses of Parliament; there is no necessity of either, I hope that they are free of this guilt.&nbsp;&nbsp; For I do believe that ill instruments between them and me has been the chief cause of all this bloodshed."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The king went on to attribute the unjust sentence he had been dealt to an unjust sentence dealt to one of his loyal servants, the Earl of Strafford, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, who had been sentenced to death by Parliament and whom the king had failed to save, saying "an unjust sentence&nbsp;that I suffered for to take effect, is punished now by an unjust sentence upon me." He also dismissed the accusations that he was a tyrant who had threatened the traditional liberties of the English people. "And truly I desire their liberty and freedom as much as anybody whomsoever. But I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having of government; those laws by which their life and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having share in government, Sir, that is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things, and therefore until they do that, I mean, that you do put the people in that liberty as I say, certainly they will never enjoy themselves.<br /><br />"Sirs. It was for this that now I am come here. If I would have given way to an arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the power of the sword I needed not to have come here. And, therefore, I tell you, and I pray God it be not laid to your charge, that I am the martyr of the people."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Bishop of London, Dr. William Juxon, whom Charles had requested administer him his last rites upon the scaffold, then reminded the king to say something about his Christian faith; "Will your Majesty, though it may be very well known, your Majesties affections to religion, yet it may be expected that you should say somewhat for the world's satisfaction?" The king replied by thanking Juxon and firmly repudiating accusations that he possessed Catholic sympathies by declaring his Christian faith and loyalty to the Church of England, "as I found it left me by my father."</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The king concluded with the immortal words, "I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown; where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the world." Dr. Juxon agreed, saying, "You are exchanged from a temporal to an eternal crown, a good exchange." The king asked his executioner to wait for a sign from the king before delivering the blow. His final words, thinking the executioner was about to bring down the ax before the signal, were "stay for the sign." The executioner replied, "Yes, I will, an it please your Majesty." After a pause, the king stretched out his hands, and he was decapitated with a single clean blow. A clergyman named Philip Henry who was among the onlookers later said of the day, "at the instant when the blow was given, there was such a dismal universal groan among the thousands of people that were in sight of it, as it were with one consent."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The king's death was to be followed by the eleven-year Interregnum, most of which was spent under the Cromwellian military dictatorship. Following the restoration of King Charles II in 1660 after&nbsp;Oliver Cromwell's death and the overthrow of his son Richard, Charles I was recognised as a martyr by the Church of England, and is still commemorated today by high church Anglicans. The Royal Stuart Society lays a wreath&nbsp;at the statue of King Charles I in Trafalgar Square every year on the 30th January to commemorate his death. Charles was not a great king; one contemporary, Archbishop William Laud, described him as "a mild and gracious prince who knew not how to be, or how to be made, great." Nonetheless, the historical picture we have of the king is one of a well-meaning sovereign who genuinely believed he was in the right. The House of Lords and the bulk of the House of Commons opposed putting the king on trial, but an effective military coup by Cromwell and other army leaders&nbsp;on the 6th and 7th December 1648 saw those Members of Parliament who opposed the army and favoured coming to a settlement with the king arrested. The remaining rump House of Commons voted in favour of putting the king on trial, the first time a monarch had been put on trial by his own people. In the end, neither King Charles nor Parliament won.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The king's trial and execution was a travesty of justice. It would set a terrible precedent for future revolutionaries, by establishing that a lawful king- or indeed any lawful government- could be removed by violent force and that power did not derive from the laws of God or the State but, as Chairman Mao put it, &nbsp;grows out of the barrel of a gun. Today, as we remember his death, it should serve as a warning from history of the consequences when force of might overrules lawful authority. RIP Your Majesty; if you are looking down upon us all from your incorruptible crown, spare a thought for those of us left behind who remember you.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The King is dead; long live the Queen.</div><br />The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-74615826367322906002015-01-25T05:04:00.002-08:002015-01-25T05:04:37.180-08:00Burns' Night<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mvvQorx37W8/VMTn-_necjI/AAAAAAAAAL4/rpae_vRrGHk/s1600/640px-Robert_Burns_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mvvQorx37W8/VMTn-_necjI/AAAAAAAAAL4/rpae_vRrGHk/s1600/640px-Robert_Burns_1.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Engraving of Robert Burns</td></tr></tbody></table>&nbsp;Today is the 25th January, the 256th birthday of one of Scotland's most famous sons, poet Rabbie Burns. As such, Scots and members of the Scottish diaspora throughout the world will be celebrating Burns' Night with haggis aplenty. The tradition of the Burns supper originates with Burns' personal friends and acquaintances in Ayrshire in the late 18th century, and they were originally held on the anniversary of his death, the 21st July. Later, in 1801, the first Burns Club was founded by Greenock merchants to celebrate Burns' life and works every year on his birthday, or what they believed to be his birthday, the 29th January; later records came to light showing that Burns was actually born on the 25th, and so Burns suppers have been held on the 25th ever since.<br /><br />Burns himself was a fascinating character. Politically liberal and a patriotic Scotsman, Burns was opposed to the Act of Union and is reported to have supported the French Revolution; however, he was critical of the Jacobite risings, the Catholic absolutism of the House of Stuart being inimical to Burns' liberal tastes, and in 1795 he helped organise the Dumfries Volunteers, a militia formed to help protect the nation in the event of a French invasion. At the same time he wrote his poem, "Should Haughty Gaul Invasion Threat," in which he proclaims: "Be Britain still to Britain true, / Amang ourselves united; / &nbsp;For never but by British hands / &nbsp;Maun British wrangs be righted!" Burns' precise political views have long been debated and will likely continue to be a subject of debate; was he a closeted liberal republican, whose later apparent British nationalism was an act to avoid the attention of the authorities? Was he a firm supporter of the constitution, supportive of the French Revolution at first only to later balk at its descent into bloody tyranny?<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SOnFCMYn1JU/VMToDC1kroI/AAAAAAAAAMA/4iwT5b_bO8Y/s1600/Sir_William_Allan_-_Sir_Walter_Scott%2C_1771_-_1832._Novelist_and_poet_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SOnFCMYn1JU/VMToDC1kroI/AAAAAAAAAMA/4iwT5b_bO8Y/s1600/Sir_William_Allan_-_Sir_Walter_Scott%2C_1771_-_1832._Novelist_and_poet_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" height="320" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet;<br />painted by Sir William Allan</td></tr></tbody></table>Whatever the case, although I might not have agreed with the Bard's politics, I am an avid fan of his poetry. It's also clear that Burns and his work have become a celebrated fixture of Scottish culture. He was <i>the</i> pivotal figure of Scottish Romanticism before it had even really got started, and played a role in ensuring the continuation of a unique Scottish identity within Great Britain and later the United Kingdom. Even that other great staple of the Scottish Romantic movement, Sir Walter Scott, who himself was more my political cup of tea being a staunch Scottish Tory &nbsp;and unionist at a time when Toryism was still about loyalty to King and Country and less about privatisation, made it clear he considered Burns to be the far superior writer when asked how he thought he compared to his antecessor, declaring that “there is no comparison whatever: we ought not to be named in the same day.” Scott, incidentally, played an important role in promoting Burns' works after his death as part of the romanticised Scottish identity Scott promoted. The two met only once, at a literary salon in the winter of 1786. Burns asked who had authored a certain poem, and Scott was the only one present who could answer him; Burns thanked him. Oh, to be a fly on the wall that day.<br /><br />Alas, Scotland's great poet was to be taken from the world too soon; he died at just 37 years of age, in 1796. His legacy lives on in his poetry. To celebrate his life and contributions to poetry, it seems only fitting I should conclude this post with a poem by Burns (I would try to compose a tribute myself, but alas I am hopelessly inept at writing anything but prose). After much indecision, I chose this one, probably my favourite Burns poem:&nbsp;<i>Lament Of Mary, Queen Of Scots, On The Approach Of Spring.</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>"Now Nature hangs her mantle green&nbsp;</i><br /><i>On every blooming tree,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>And spreads her sheets o' daisies white&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Out o'er the grassy lea ;&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Now Phoebus cheers the crystal streams,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>And glads the azure skies;&nbsp;</i><br /><i>But nought can glad the weary wight&nbsp;</i><br /><i>That fast in durance lies.&nbsp;</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>"Now laverocks wake the merry morn&nbsp;</i><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0MB7fJ3yWhk/VMToGQG0BOI/AAAAAAAAAMI/P8PNclexLmY/s1600/YoungMaryStuart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0MB7fJ3yWhk/VMToGQG0BOI/AAAAAAAAAMI/P8PNclexLmY/s1600/YoungMaryStuart.jpg" height="320" width="217" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mary, Queen of Scots, at age 13; during<br />her time in France</td></tr></tbody></table><i>Aloft on dewy wing;&nbsp;</i><br /><i>The merle , in his noontide bow'r,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Makes woodland echoes ring;&nbsp;</i><br /><i>The mavis wild wi' mony a note,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Sings drowsy day to rest:&nbsp;</i><br /><i>In love and freedom they rejoice,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Wi' care nor thrall opprest.&nbsp;</i><br /><i></i><br /><i></i><i>"Now blooms the lily by the bank,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>The primrose down the brae ;&nbsp;</i><br /><i>The hawthorn's budding in the glen,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>And milk-white is the slae :&nbsp;</i><br /><i>The meanest hind in fair Scotland&nbsp;</i><br /><i>May rove their sweets amang ;&nbsp;</i><br /><i>But I, the Queen of a' Scotland,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Maun lie in prison strang .&nbsp;</i><br /><i></i><br /><i></i><i>"I was the Queen o' bonie France,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Where happy I hae been;&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Fu' lightly raise I in the morn,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>As blythe lay down at e'en :&nbsp;</i><br /><i>And I'm the sov'reign of Scotland,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>And mony a traitor there;&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Yet here I lie in foreign bands,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>And never-ending care.&nbsp;</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>"But as for thee, thou false woman,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>My sister and my fae ,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Grim Vengeance yet shall whet a sword&nbsp;</i><br /><i>That thro' thy soul shall gae ;&nbsp;</i><br /><i>The weeping blood in woman's breast&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Was never known to thee;&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Nor th' balm that draps on wounds of woe&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Frae woman's pitying e'e .&nbsp;</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>"My son! my son! may kinder stars&nbsp;<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EKdD8lXPYFs/VMTpsm43YxI/AAAAAAAAAMU/zphzBZtI3aE/s1600/Mary_Stuart_James.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EKdD8lXPYFs/VMTpsm43YxI/AAAAAAAAAMU/zphzBZtI3aE/s1600/Mary_Stuart_James.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mary portrayed next to her son,<br />King James VI and I&nbsp;</td></tr></tbody></table></i><br /><i>Upon thy fortune shine;&nbsp;</i><br /><i>And may those pleasures gild thy reign,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>That ne'er wad blink on mine!&nbsp;</i><br /><i>God keep thee frae thy mother's faes ,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Or turn their hearts to thee:&nbsp;</i><br /><i>And where thou meet'st thy mother's friend,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Remember him for me!&nbsp;</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>"O! soon, to me, may Summer suns&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Nae mair light up the morn!&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Nae mair to me the Autumn winds&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Wave o'er the yellow corn?&nbsp;</i><br /><i>And, in the narrow house of death,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Let Winter round me rave;&nbsp;</i><br /><i>And the next flow'rs that deck the Spring ,&nbsp;</i><br /><i></i><br /><i>Bloom on my peaceful grave!"</i>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-37160923944096124032014-12-25T04:40:00.000-08:002014-12-25T04:40:01.821-08:00Merry Christmas!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wn-7BZyHlBk/VJrmh7VTzmI/AAAAAAAAALY/NGpgPAkIbXw/s1600/Godey'streeDec1850.GIF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wn-7BZyHlBk/VJrmh7VTzmI/AAAAAAAAALY/NGpgPAkIbXw/s1600/Godey'streeDec1850.GIF" height="400" width="261" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen Victoria and Prince Albert gather around their<br />Christmas tree with their children, from&nbsp;the <br /><i>Illustrated London News</i>, 1848</td></tr></tbody></table><br />The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-1635307501606201142014-11-30T06:31:00.000-08:002014-11-30T06:31:31.175-08:00Happy St. Andrew's Day!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GbSBtCSoirU/VBr5ml2MUJI/AAAAAAAAAJU/POlt1P8ww_s/s1600/1000px-Flag_of_Scotland.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GbSBtCSoirU/VBr5ml2MUJI/AAAAAAAAAJU/POlt1P8ww_s/s1600/1000px-Flag_of_Scotland.svg.png" height="120" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F3PcPYZ8Qd0/VHspzm6z6jI/AAAAAAAAALI/Cg7G97JQWv8/s1600/Lionrampant.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F3PcPYZ8Qd0/VHspzm6z6jI/AAAAAAAAALI/Cg7G97JQWv8/s1600/Lionrampant.svg.png" height="119" width="200" /></a></div><br />Today is the 30th of November, the feast day of St. Andrew the Apostle, the patron saint of Scotland. This is a particularly significant St. Andrew's Day because it is the first since Scotland voted in September to remain a member of the United Kingdom, rather than risking separation under Alex Salmond.<br /><br />St. Andrew was not a Scot himself, of course. Indeed, among the patron saints of the British Isles only Wales' and Ireland's patron saints, St. Patrick and St. David, ever lay foot in the nations they are now indelibly linked with, and only St. David was born in the country now under his patronage. England's St. George was a Roman soldier, whilst St. Andrew himself was a Judean, the brother of St. Peter and one of Christ's apostles. The story of how Andrew became associated with the Scottish nation is a long and curious one. For the most part, the saint is associated more with the East than with the windswept western European country of Scotland; it is alleged that after Jesus' death and resurrection, Andrew preached in the lands of Scythia to the north-east, travelling through today's Ukraine and Russia and reaching as far north as Novgorod, according to the Chronicle of Nestor, a history of the Kievan Rus' written by the Orthodox monk Nestor the Chronicler. He was also said to have founded the See of Byzantium (later known as Constantinople) in 38 AD. Today he is revered as the patron saint of Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and the Patriarchate of Constantinople.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-du6vs9UTdC4/VHsphmgKr-I/AAAAAAAAALA/thamL_dZf_w/s1600/Martyrdom_of_andrew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-du6vs9UTdC4/VHsphmgKr-I/AAAAAAAAALA/thamL_dZf_w/s1600/Martyrdom_of_andrew.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a></div>In c. 70 AD, Andrew was martyred by crucifixion in the city of Patras, Archaia, Greece. Early sources say he was bound to a cross like the one on which Jesus died, but later the story grew up that he had requested that he be crucified on an&nbsp;<i>Crux decussata, </i>or an x-shaped cross, feeling unworthy of being martyred in the same way as his Lord. The request was granted, and today this sort of cross is known as St. Andrew's Cross. According to legend, St. Andrew's relics were initially kept at the city where he was martyred, Patras, before the famed Roman Emperor Constantine I conquered the city and had them transferred to Constantinople. However, the monk St. Regulus was warned of Constantine's invasion by an angel in a dream, and so on the angel's instructions, Regulus took some of the relics to the "ends of the Earth" for safety. He was to build a shrine for the relics wherever he was first shipwrecked; and, as fortune (or God's will) would have it, he was shipwrecked on the coast of Fife in Scotland, where he met the Pictish King Óengus I. Today, the relics are said to be housed in St. Regulus' Church in the town of St Andrews, Scotland.<br /><br />In 832 AD, it is said that King Óengus II of the Picts led a joint army of Scots and Picts into battle against the Angles under the leadership of King&nbsp;Æthelstan. Before the battle, the Pictish King prayed for divine intercession to aid the Picts against their numerically superior English foes, and promised that if he was victorious he would name St. Andrew the patron saint of Scotland. On the day of the battle, the clouds above the battlefield formed the shape of St. Andrew's cross; emboldened by the apparent favour of the divine, the Picts and the Scots took to the battlefield full of religious zeal and defeated the much larger army of the Angles. Óengus kept his promise, proclaiming St. Andrew the patron saint of Scotland, and adopted the white cross against the sky's blue background as the new national flag of Scotland.<br /><br />Like much of Scotland's national myth, this story casts the English in the role of villains; I confess to finding this both sad and amusing at the same time. It is, however, all the more amusing and touching that today, over a millennium after that legendary victory is said to have taken place, St. Andrew's saltire and St. George's cross now coexist as part of the flag of the United Kingdom. Britain's national story is one of former foes laying down arms and uniting for the greater good, and shows that the most Christian of messages- that love and cooperation between neighbours can achieve more than war, hatred and distrust ever could- really is gospel truth. God bless Scotland and the United Kingdom.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/tAqzXWNnRq4?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><br />The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-7715783237680299972014-11-05T11:25:00.002-08:002014-11-05T11:25:19.419-08:00Remember, remember...<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n_hHZlqROHE/VFp2rEtLcpI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/YIrU4DsJFTQ/s1600/640px-James_I_of_England_404446.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n_hHZlqROHE/VFp2rEtLcpI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/YIrU4DsJFTQ/s1600/640px-James_I_of_England_404446.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">King James VI and I</td></tr></tbody></table>Today is the 5th November, the day loyal British subjects celebrate the failure of Guy Fawkes' plot to assassinate His Majesty James VI and I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, at the State Opening of Parliament in 1605. "Remember, remember," the old rhyme goes, "the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot; I know of no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot." Certainly, the Gunpowder Plot has never been forgotten, although today the holiday is generally treated more as an occasion for revelries than a celebration of our then-King's survival; on the plus side, although the 5th is today more about fireworks and bonfires than treason it has shed most of the anti-Catholic aspects of its celebration in the past. Most people now associate the "guy" being burned on the bonfire with Guy Fawkes himself, though clever clogs will tell you it was originally supposed to represent the Pope- that old rhyme goes on to say, "a rope, a rope, to hang the Pope, a penn'orth of cheese to choke him, a pint of beer to wash it down, and a jolly good fire to burn him."<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PcG0_xcoSso/VFp4TZKKn_I/AAAAAAAAAKg/cEjdet9bO3g/s1600/vgraphicnovel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PcG0_xcoSso/VFp4TZKKn_I/AAAAAAAAAKg/cEjdet9bO3g/s1600/vgraphicnovel.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover of the 1980s graphic <br />novel&nbsp;<i>V for Vendetta.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>While few mourn the deserved death of anti-Catholic prejudice in the UK (although it appears to be making a comeback among secular liberals incensed at the Church's refusal to admit its teachings over the last 1,000+ years have been wrong and join the secular humanist brigade, and in Northern Ireland it has sadly never gone away), I for one find it disturbing that the original meaning of the holiday- celebrating the King's safety- has become so twisted. The graphic novel and 2006 film adaptation&nbsp;<i>V for Vendetta </i>played a role in this; featuring a terrorist wearing a Guy Fawkes mask who fights against an evil, fascist government in an alternate history version of the United Kingdom, the franchise celebrates Guy Fawkes as "a great citizen" who wished to "remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives." And so a religious terrorist who aimed to kill hundreds and establish a Catholic police state in the place of a Protestant police state becomes a hero of liberty, with "Guy Fawkes masks" becoming associated with groups such as the Occupy "movement" and the online "hacktivist" group Anonymous. In 400 years' time, I wonder if anyone will be wearing Osama bin Laden masks and celebrating the 9th September.<br /><br />Children in the UK still learn the story of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot from a young age, and recently the holiday has experienced a rise in popularity. Although I was more of a Halloween fan as a child, sweets and costumes somewhat lose their appeal as one gets older, whilst fireworks remain as spectacular as ever- and how could a monarchist resist a holiday celebrating the King's survival of a<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">&nbsp;</span><i>coup d'état?</i>&nbsp;Certainly, Halloween in its modern form is predominantly an American export, whilst the 5th November is a homegrown holiday and the closest thing the UK has to a national day- so it's patriotic to celebrate it, too. Hopefully this holiday will endure, as will the story of Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators; but the most important thing to remember on the 5th November is that we are celebrating not the conspirators but their failure, and above all else today is a day to celebrate the triumph of the legitimate government over a terrorist plot.<br /><i><br />Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring! <br /> Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King! <br /> Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!</i>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-68110988203055525622014-10-25T04:23:00.000-07:002014-10-25T04:23:07.436-07:00Tragedy in Canada<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1v10oXcVUx0/VEuHjIqEPyI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/dtwZFoyb_IU/s1600/800px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1v10oXcVUx0/VEuHjIqEPyI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/dtwZFoyb_IU/s1600/800px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png" height="160" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br />This week, tragedy unfolded in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, where a gunman <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29724907">shot and murdered a soldier</a> serving as an honour guard at a war memorial before storming Canada's parliament building. The gunman, identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, was himself shot by Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers before he could harm anyone inside the parliament building. My thoughts go out to Cpl Nathan Cirillo, the soldier who gave his life in these most unlikely of circumstances, and to his family; the shooting calls up memories of <a href="http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A7x9Un_efUtUwE0A4xR3Bwx.;_ylu=X3oDMTBydWpobjZlBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2lyMgR2dGlkAw--/RV=2/RE=1414262366/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fDeath_of_Lee_Rigby/RK=0/RS=BTMyqN3bfLUY6kZ9pnPlnkOoJyg-">Drummer Lee Rigby's murder in 2013</a>. In&nbsp;both cases, men who risked their lives in the service of their country were cut down in cold blood not on some foreign battlefield but at home in the nations they served, a tragic irony that must make many of their colleagues worry about their own safety. Then as now, the implication seems to be that these two men were singled out simply because they wore military uniform.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Zehaf-Bibeau was a 32 year old Canadian subject of Her Majesty the Queen; his mother was Canadian, his father originally from Libya. He was reportedly<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/22/world/canada-shooter/index.html"> a convert to Islam with a criminal record</a>&nbsp;and past convictions for drug use,&nbsp;violence and "other criminal activities." Like many young people, he seems to have had a fairly comfortable upbringing before loosing his way in later life and becoming radicalised; his story has chilling echoes of those of Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, Drummer Rigby's murderers, as well as that of <a href="http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A7x9Uky1fUtU5GMAxo53Bwx.;_ylu=X3oDMTBydWpobjZlBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2lyMgR2dGlkAw--/RV=2/RE=1414262326/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fDzhokhar_Tsarnaev/RK=0/RS=_NXljfBcPkJ0xbevCAyEmFAfkl0-">Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev</a>, the brothers responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings, also last year. It seems that Canada now joins the United Kingdom and the United States as victims of Islamic terrorism. The question Western societies must ask themselves is, why are so many young people being pulled into the trap of Islamic extremism? Or, indeed, any other kind of extremism?</div><div><br /></div><div>The unfortunate truth is that people whose lives go wrong will always look for two things; hope, in the form of a cause, and someone to lay the blame on. Radical Islam provides a cause, and it gives these people something to blame in the form of "decadent," "sinful" Western society. I make no apologies for being a realist, and I do not believe that society will ever reach a stage where all people are well-adjusted, decent citizens, but even so, it seems that occurrences like these are becoming worryingly frequent. These aren't petty criminal acts, but terrorist activity, committed with the sole intention of causing panic and fear in order to forward the cause of the perpetrators. How can countries such as Canada minimise the risk of terrorist activity?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f5BucCSWFGM/VEuH_gHA44I/AAAAAAAAAKA/cPRoyr_1s10/s1600/Queen_of_canada_wob.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f5BucCSWFGM/VEuH_gHA44I/AAAAAAAAAKA/cPRoyr_1s10/s1600/Queen_of_canada_wob.jpg" height="200" width="177" /></a></div>Well, the first thing that must be said is that draconian surveillance measures as <a href="http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrBJSBkf0tU0mgAbltQBQx./RV=2/RE=1414262756/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fwww.irishtimes.com%2fnews%2fworld%2fcanadian-pm-to-seek-more-surveillance-after-ottawa-shootings-1.1974912/RK=0/RS=tW62aA5X75MLI5Qz6JYJ9hYwPg4-">proposed by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper</a> following the attack on parliament are not the perfect solution. I can tell you that the United Kingdom is now one of the world's most watched countries thanks to the surveillance brought in under the previous Labour government, and the impact on crime has been negligible. The root of the problem is social; for one thing, the onus is at least in part on the Islamic community to counter the influence of radicals within their community. That the vast majority of Muslims are perfectly decent, hardworking and upright citizens I do not doubt, but the voice of this overwhelming majority is often quieted by the actions of extremists. Muslims in the Western world should be encouraged to speak out against extremism at every opportunity. Mosques and madrasas where radical clerics are allowed access to susceptible young people should be mercilessly pursued and shut down.<br /><br />What's more, a reassertion of traditional religion in Canada would go a long way to filling the spiritual void in many modern Canadians' lives. As C.S. Lewis said, "spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison." A Canada that asserts its national identity, promotes patriotism and faith, and offers its citizens a positive "cause" will find it far easier to wage a culture war against radicalism than a Canada based on fluffy and shallow ideals such as "freedom," "multiculturalism" and "individualism." People turn to Islamism because they are looking for an identity. I say, offer them a better one- a Canadian identity. Of course, when I say promote faith, I principally mean the Christian faith that Canada was built on, but supporting orthodox Islam against the heretical, ISIS-aligned brand offered by hate clerics is also sound policy. Assimiliationism is better than multiculturalism. All citizens of Canada should be encouraged to embrace their Canadian identity, and above all else, to embrace the monarchy- the Maple Crown- as the keystone of the Canadian nation; a sentiment expressed by the admirable Canadian Islamic leader Sayyid Amiruddin, of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order, <a href="http://ahmedamiruddin.wordpress.com/2014/10/23/statement-regarding-the-isis-inspired-terrorist-attacks-on-parliament-hill-oct-22-2014/">on his blog</a>.<br /><br />Canada is a country that I have great affection for. It is a country built on loyalty to the Crown, and <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TEXqk4Gh6es/VEuHL9W2GLI/AAAAAAAAAJw/Oz-X8F1zWKc/s1600/541px-Canada_(orthographic_projection).svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TEXqk4Gh6es/VEuHL9W2GLI/AAAAAAAAAJw/Oz-X8F1zWKc/s1600/541px-Canada_(orthographic_projection).svg.png" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>indeed Canada has grown from a loyal colony of Great Britain to a loyal friend and comrade in arms. I despair at the creeping Americanisation of Canada, especially the gradual erosion of traditional Canadian Toryism by an American brand of Conservatism that seems to have asserted itself recently. Symbolic gestures such as the Canadian Government's decision to restore the names of the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Airforce in 2011 give me hope that Canada's identity, grown from a cutting of Great Britain but shaped by its unique history and circumstances, will endure. With its vast territories and natural resources, Canada has the makings of a great power, if it so wished to become one; but whatever path Canada chooses in the future, it will be brave men like Nathan Cirillo and Kevin Vickers who get it there.</div>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-13289072522846755262014-09-19T03:27:00.002-07:002014-09-19T03:27:48.823-07:00Victory For The Union!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1WAobIV4BtE/VBwEeKuOW6I/AAAAAAAAAJg/BQFGQdo3oG0/s1600/_77684450_c96ee300-67e6-4dc4-8841-06e9b5f6e514.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1WAobIV4BtE/VBwEeKuOW6I/AAAAAAAAAJg/BQFGQdo3oG0/s1600/_77684450_c96ee300-67e6-4dc4-8841-06e9b5f6e514.jpg" height="209" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Better Together" supporters celebrate the unionist victory as the <br />final results come in.</td></tr></tbody></table><div>The results of Scotland's referendum on secession this morning: 55.3% voted no (2,001,926), 44.7% voted yes (1,617,989). The turnout was an amazing 84.59%, showing that if nothing else this referendum heightened public interest in politics considerably.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>From the bottom of my heart, I'd like to thank every one of those 2,001,926 Scots who cast their vote in favour of retaining our United Kingdom. In the days ahead their will be plenty of talk about devolution and constitutional reform, the long term impacts of this referendum; but for today at least, the atmosphere is one of celebration for those who love Great Britain. Let's crack out the whiskey and raise a glass o' cheer to the Queen and the People of Scotland and the United Kingdom!</div><div><br /></div><div>Hip, hip- hurray!</div><div>Hip, hip- hurray!</div><div>Hip, hip- hurray!</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/events/scotland-decides/results">The final results in detail</a></div><div><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-29269713">The referendum in pictures</a></div>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-28289685531821199982014-09-18T08:26:00.003-07:002014-09-18T08:27:13.006-07:00Scottish Referendum: A Last Word Before The Result<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GbSBtCSoirU/VBr5ml2MUJI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/GGu0TfWe4j0/s1600/1000px-Flag_of_Scotland.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GbSBtCSoirU/VBr5ml2MUJI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/GGu0TfWe4j0/s1600/1000px-Flag_of_Scotland.svg.png" height="120" width="200" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The referendum that will decide the fate of my country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was held today and by the time I have posted this message I suspect most Scots will already have cast their votes. It is probably too late, then, for me to urge any undecided voters who might happen to stumble across this blog right before going out to the polls to choose the Union over the uncertainties of independence. Considering that this blog was set up in large part to argue the case for the Union, I have given it fairly little coverage; the referendum has crept up more quickly than any of us could imagine, and I've been too busy in my personal life to devote considerable time to my blog. That said, whatever the result of this referendum is, I will not stop blogging. In the worst case scenario, if I wake up tomorrow morning to find that my country has been condemned to abolition in two years time after the last negotiations are complete, the next mission I will face will be doing what little I can to defend the Union of the Crowns and the Scottish monarchy which will surely be the SNP's next target. Alternatively, if the decision of the Scottish people is a decisive "No," as I truly hope it will be, then we unionists can all take a deep sigh of relief, but I will definitely continue posting my views on the Union and Scotland along with a range of other topics (hopefully). The truth is, no matter what the result the polls indicate that it will be a close race, and in the event of the "No" camp succeeding by a slim margin I have no doubt that the nationalists will be calling for another referendum in ten years' time. So long as there are things of great import in this world, there will inevitably be those seeking to destroy them.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is little point now in me criticising the atrocious way that the "Yes" campaign has been carried out. From <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/scotland/referendum/article4207879.ece">encouraging nationalist teenagers to emotionally blackmail their unionist grandparents</a> into voting yes, to <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11064971/Scottish-independence-Yes-campaign-accused-of-coordinating-Nationalist-mobs-to-disrupt-pro-UK-events.html">organising "mobs" to disrupt pro-Unionist events</a>, the "Yes Scotland" campaign has behaved in a manner resembling the authoritarian populist parties of the early 20th century. I have personally been on the receiving end of one or two taunts from the now infamous "cybernats" or online nationalist lobby, but truth be told I've gotten on surprisingly well; maybe because I've chosen to voice my opinion mainly on this blog and dedicated political forums rather than venturing onto Twitter, Facebook and other social media where people have had abuse hurled at them for endorsing a "No"vote. I tend to think JK Rowling is an overrated author, but I admire her greatly for <a href="http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/head-says-no-heart-shouts-it-jk-rowling-on-scotland-independence-referendum_1471574.html">coming out as a "Better Together" supporter</a> and urging a peaceful and respectful dialogue, despite the fact that she has come under fire from nationalists for voicing her opinion. I'm not sure I agree with the idea of her becoming Queen of Scots, however.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>On the topic of the Queen of Scots, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II caused a media stir by <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/scottish-independence/scottish-independence-queen-breaks-silence-on-referendum-debate-9732198.html">"breaking her silence"</a> on the Scottish referendum. The Queen's comment that she hopes “people will think very carefully about the future” was taken by many on both sides of the debate as an endorsement of the "No" campaign, leading to the usual accusations of the Queen having violated her political neutrality. So telling people to think very carefully about the future is encouraging them to vote no? I'm saying nothing.</div><div><br /></div><div>The votes are being cast even as I write. Soon the future of not just one, but four countries- and quite possibly the entire world- will be written by Scotland's 5.2 million inhabitants, in the form of millions of a little "x" in one of two little boxes. Unfortunately, being merely of Scottish descent, I get no vote, and no say in the matter. It is now out of my hands. <i>Que sera sera. </i>But I pray earnestly for a Unionist victory. God Save the Queen and the United Kingdom!</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z1hvR5OWI2g/VBr48z_7-6I/AAAAAAAAAJI/ZjW0OvvbGBQ/s1600/640px-Satellite_image_of_Great_Britain_and_Northern_Ireland_in_April_2002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z1hvR5OWI2g/VBr48z_7-6I/AAAAAAAAAJI/ZjW0OvvbGBQ/s1600/640px-Satellite_image_of_Great_Britain_and_Northern_Ireland_in_April_2002.jpg" height="320" width="217" /></a></div><i><span style="font-size: large;"></span></i><br /><div><i><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"></span></i></span></i><br /><div style="display: inline !important;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"></span></i></span></i></span></i><br /><div style="display: inline !important;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">O let us not, like snarling curs,&nbsp;</span></i></span></i></span></i></span></i></div><i><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"></span></i></span></i></div><i><span style="font-size: large;"></span></i></div><br /><div><i><span style="font-size: large;">In wrangling be divided,&nbsp;</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-size: large;">Till, slap! come in an unco loun,&nbsp;</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-size: large;">And wi' a rung decide it!&nbsp;</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-size: large;">Be Britain still to Britain true,&nbsp;</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-size: large;">Amang ourselves united;&nbsp;</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-size: large;">For never but by British hands&nbsp;</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-size: large;">Maun British wrangs be righted!&nbsp;</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-size: large;">No! never but by British hands&nbsp;</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-size: large;">Shall British wrangs be righted! </span></i></div>- Rabbie Burns, "Does Haughty Gaul Invasion Threat"The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-76462457353602302212014-08-26T14:13:00.000-07:002014-08-26T14:13:07.110-07:005 Good Reasons To Vote No - Part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><i style="text-align: left;">Continued from Part 1.</i></div><b><u><br /></u></b><b><u>3. The North Sea oil won't last forever.</u></b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AYUvWKgWej8/U_zXvstVmCI/AAAAAAAAAIk/THWUOceb0WI/s1600/Oil_platform.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AYUvWKgWej8/U_zXvstVmCI/AAAAAAAAAIk/THWUOceb0WI/s1600/Oil_platform.jpeg" height="160" width="200" /></a></div>One of the Yes campaign's major points throughout the campaigning has been that Scotland as an independent country would have a valuable asset in the form of North Sea oil and gas reserves. The issue came up again last night, when Alex Salmond said that&nbsp;<a href="http://www.itv.com/news/border/update/2014-08-25/leaders-clash-over-future-of-north-sea-oil/">"every other country in Europe would give their back teeth to have North Sea Oil".</a>&nbsp;Except the Kingdom of Norway, of course, who already have&nbsp;54% of the sea's oil reserves and 45% of its gas reserves. Norway is part of the "arc of prosperity" cited by Alex Salmond as models that an independent Scotland could model itself on, before other members of that arc of prosperity- including Iceland and the Republic of Ireland- suffered a spectacular economic collapse when the recession hit. Certainly, Norway has gained great wealth from its share of the oil and gas reserves in the North Sea, but Norwegian and British government sources agree that over half the reserves have already been used. Furthermore, as Alistair Darling pointed out last night, oil is a very volatile source of revenue and an independent Scotland relying on it to buoy the economy would be taking a gamble. Recently, Sir Ian Wood, a major figure in the UK's oil and gas industry, came out against independence&nbsp;warning that "<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11046740/Sir-Ian-Wood-15-years-of-oil-left-before-independent-Scotland-spending-cuts.html">there are only 15 years of reserves left before its decline starts wreaking major damage on the Scottish economy.</a>"&nbsp;Sir Ian believes that the Scottish Government has been overestimating the remaining oil and gas reserves in the North Sea. On the other hand, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-28926369">other industry experts yesterday said</a> that the Scottish Government's estimate of 24bn remaining barrels of oil was "plausible." Whatever the case, oil and gas are non-renewable resources, meaning that they are replenished so slowly that they are effectively finite. And reserves are notoriously difficult to predict, meaning that relying on the revenue from North Sea oil to buoy the independent Scotland's economy is building a house on unstable ground.<br /><br /><b><u>4. EU membership is uncertain.</u></b><br /><b><u><br /></u></b>Another of Yes Scotland's talking points has been the European Union, which Scots are generally more supportive of than their countrymen in the rest of the United Kingdom. Alex Salmond has repeatedly claimed that independence is the best option for Scots who wish to remain within the EU, as rising euroscepticism south of the border sees the UK Independence Party gaining increasing electoral success and the Conservatives promising a referendum on EU membership if re-elected. However, as I've previously mentioned, Salmond's assertions that upon independence, Scotland would automatically inherit the UK's membership of the Union have been contradicted by members of the European elite. In February, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that it would be <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26215963">"extremely difficult, if not impossible"</a> for Scotland to join the European Union. Yesterday his sentiments were echoed by Ruairi Quinn, former president of EU's finance council, who predicted that <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11054187/Spain-and-Belgium-would-veto-an-independent-Scotlands-EU-membership.html">Spain and Belgium would be likely to block Scotland's application.</a> Both countries have significant secessionist movements within their own borders and would not wish to encourage them by allowing a newly independent Scotland into Europe. Mr Quinn also stated that Scotland would need to adopt the euro as a condition of joining the EU, providing its application was accepted, contradicting Alex Salmond's claims that Scotland would be allowed to continue using the pound as the United Kingdom is at present.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the Scottish Fishermen's Federation have warned that an&nbsp;<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11049665/Scottish-fishermen-deliver-EU-warning-on-independence.html">independent Scotland would have less clout within the EU</a> and less say when it came to issues such as fishing quotas, meaning that Scotland would likely lose out to larger countries- including the rest of the United Kingdom, which will continue to have considerable influence in Europe post-independence. The SFF&nbsp;also described the SNP’s claims that Scotland could negotiate EU membership between a "yes" vote next month and seceding in March 2016 as "very optimistic." Much like the rest of their campaign, then.<br /><br /><b><u>5. The United Kingdom is stronger together.</u></b><br /><b><u><br /></u></b>As a unified country, Great Britain and later the United Kingdom achieved more than Scotland and England ever did alone. For better or for worse, the British Empire was the largest empire in world history, and the union flag flew over a quarter of the world's landmass at its height. The Industrial Revolution began here, as did modern parliamentary democracy, influenced as much by the Scottish Enlightenment as by English ideals. Glasgow was called the "Second City of the Empire." Today, Scotland still benefits from being part of one of the world's great powers, a nuclear power with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council,<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">&nbsp;</span>and the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and eighth-largest by purchasing power parity. But most of all, the bonds between the people of the British Isles go beyond mere politics and economics; we have deeply influenced each other's culture, and millions of people live in the UK today who have both English and Scottish ancestry, living embodiment of the 300-year-old union between these two ancient nations, along with Wales and Northern Ireland. I will leave the last word to the architect of the Union of Crowns, James VI and I, who laid the groundwork for the eventual unification of Great Britain:<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3N0kmsy5ezw/U_z2MhxCFWI/AAAAAAAAAI4/09ce4bvSubs/s1600/King_James_I_of_England_and_VI_of_Scotland_by_John_De_Critz_the_Elder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3N0kmsy5ezw/U_z2MhxCFWI/AAAAAAAAAI4/09ce4bvSubs/s1600/King_James_I_of_England_and_VI_of_Scotland_by_John_De_Critz_the_Elder.jpg" height="200" width="143" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">James VI and I in 1606 by<br />John De Critz the Elder&nbsp;</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="font-size: large;"><i>"But the union of these two princely houses is nothing comparable to the union of two ancient and famous kingdoms, which is the other inward peace annexed to my person ... Has not God first united these two kingdoms, both in language, religion, and similitude of manners? Yes, has he not made us all in one island, compassed with one sea, and of itself by nature so indivisible, as almost those that were borderers themselves on the late borders, cannot distinguish nor know or discern their own limits? These two Countries being separated neither by sea, nor great river, mountain, nor other strength of nature ..."</i></span><div>- James VI and I, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland</div></div>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-57098889319169859922014-08-25T12:52:00.001-07:002014-08-26T13:58:37.791-07:005 Good Reasons To Vote No - Part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aQucnsVQ4IM/U_uRl17HAKI/AAAAAAAAAIE/QU3DvR2b7Ag/s1600/scottish-independence-debate-stv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aQucnsVQ4IM/U_uRl17HAKI/AAAAAAAAAIE/QU3DvR2b7Ag/s1600/scottish-independence-debate-stv.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></div><br />The Scottish independence debate is really warming up now as we draw close to the 18th September, when the people of Scotland will go to the polls. Alistair Darling and Alex Salmond will be trading blows again tonight in their second televised debate; the first one made for frustrating viewing as both politicians dodged questions and resorted to attacking one another's campaign tactics rather than discussing the core issues surrounding the referendum. Most notably, Darling repeatedly asked what the SNP's "Plan B" was for Scotland's currency if their plan for a customs union with the rump of the United Kingdom failed, and Salmond repeated sidestepped the question. Tonight's debate will no doubt be much of the same.<br /><br />Personally, I remain firmly wedded to the Union. In case you hadn't noticed. But if you're still not confessed that the Union is best for Scotland, here's my 5 top ten reasons to vote "NO!" on the 18th, posted in two parts:<br /><br /><b><u>1. There aren't any definite plans on currency.</u></b><br /><b><u><br /></u></b><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0oe2Yn1DdkE/U_uTS2LXp3I/AAAAAAAAAIM/Bi3xT93M4Oc/s1600/1_pound_2014_Scotland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0oe2Yn1DdkE/U_uTS2LXp3I/AAAAAAAAAIM/Bi3xT93M4Oc/s1600/1_pound_2014_Scotland.jpg" height="200" width="184" /></a>Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, has repeatedly stated that the Scottish National Party's plan is to continue to use the pound sterling after seceding from the United Kingdom, stating that a currency union between the independent Scottish state and the UK would be desirable for all parties. However, Westminster has shown little enthusiasm for the idea of a currency union, and<a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/george-osborne-to-rule-out-currency-union-1-3302926">&nbsp;in February the Chancellor announced that the Coalition Government had formally ruled out the idea</a> of an official currency union. In the last debate, the First Minister indicated that Scotland could continue to use the pound after independence whether or not the UK agreed, just as Panama uses the US dollar. This is entirely true- however, without a formal currency union, Scotland would find itself at the whims of the central British government's financial policy, and Scotland could not count on a safety net in the event of a future financial crisis.&nbsp;What's more, the pound sterling is backed by the Bank of England. The Scottish banknotes printed by Scottish banks are not in fact legal tender, but promissory notes that are backed by the Bank of England; since the Bank of England has no real reason to continue backing promissory notes printed by foreign banks in a foreign country, it is by no means clear whether Scotland would still be able to print its own currency upon independence. A further complication is that the SNP hope for Scotland to remain within the European Union post-independence, but EU officials, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26215963">including European Commission&nbsp;&nbsp;President Jose Manuel Barroso</a>, have stated that Scotland will need to apply as a new country, meaning that Scotland will likely be expected to adopt the euro.<br /><br />To make matters worse, the SNP have said that if they are refused a currency union with the rest of the UK, they will walk out on&nbsp;their £140 billion share of UK national debt. Apart from being childish, this is extremely dangerous financially- if the newly independent Scotland's first act as a sovereign country was to essentially default on its national debt, the impact on financial markets could be devastating. The SNP could rock Scotland's economy from Day 1.<br /><br /><b><u>2. Border controls would have to be introduced.</u></b><br /><b><u><br /></u></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DP2otFOyook/U_uTz0jYUfI/AAAAAAAAAIU/vdevBaXObJQ/s1600/800px-Scottish_Borders_Welcome_Sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DP2otFOyook/U_uTz0jYUfI/AAAAAAAAAIU/vdevBaXObJQ/s1600/800px-Scottish_Borders_Welcome_Sign.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></div><b><u><br /></u></b>Currently, people are free to move between Scotland and the rest of the UK. The SNP have stated that this will remain the case post-independence; however, this is not guaranteed. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-28869295">A number of prominent pro-Union politicians have indicated that border controls</a> between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom would have to be introduced; the principal concern is that Scotland plans to introduce a more lax immigration policy following independence, with Alex Salmond promising to increase net migration into Scotland by 10% in order to expand the workforce. Scotland's population is aging more quickly than the rest of the UK, meaning that the workforce needs to be expanded to pay for Scottish pensions.<br /><br />Unfortunately, this is at odds with viewpoints on immigration in the rest of the country, where there is pressure for tighter border controls. This means that some politicians are worried immigrants will enter the rest of the UK through Scotland, necessitating border controls between England and Scotland. This could have a serious impact on Scotland's economy, since&nbsp;<a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2002/06/14991/8025">exports to the rest of the UK account for just over 50 per cent of total exports from Scotland, and imports from the rest of the UK account for around 64 per cent of Scotland's total imports.</a>&nbsp;It would also be a major inconvenience for anyone like myself who is of both Scottish and English descent and regularly visits relatives on the other side of the border- and that's a sizable portion of the UK's population. What's more, if Scotland was required to go through the normal application process to the EU as Barroso suggested, it might be expected to join the Schengen Area, a common travel area established by an agreement in 1995 that enabled passport-free movement between 25 European countries, but not the UK and Ireland. This would almost certainly require border controls between Scotland and the rest of the British Isles.<br /><br /><i>To be continued.</i>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-55040386065624525622014-07-28T08:34:00.002-07:002014-07-28T08:34:49.778-07:00Royal Martyrs<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R4cIsyQXyX4/U9Zr7MuQODI/AAAAAAAAAHs/w6RYn_zLjmw/s1600/Louis_XVI_Helping_Poor.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R4cIsyQXyX4/U9Zr7MuQODI/AAAAAAAAAHs/w6RYn_zLjmw/s1600/Louis_XVI_Helping_Poor.gif" height="261" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The martyred King Louis XVI gives money to the poor.</td></tr></tbody></table>I apologise for not posting anything for a while. Part of the reason for this absence is that I've just returned from France, where I had a rather&nbsp;Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette themed holiday, visiting the Château de Versailles, seat of the Ancien Régime; the Conciergerie, where Queen Marie Antoinette was held prior to her execution; the Place de la Concorde, formerly Place de la Révolution, where the King and Queen were among the hundreds guillotined by the successive&nbsp;revolutionary governments; and the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Denis, where the remains of Louis and his family were interred following the Bourbon Restoration on the orders of King Louis XVIII. The tragic story of the revolution and the murder of the Royal Family was brought to life for me after seeing where they lived and died, but by far the most harrowing moment was visiting the grave of the titular King Louis XVII, son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who died in 1795 of tuberculosis almost certainly brought on by the horrific circumstances he was kept in by the revolutionaries after his parents were sent to the guillotine. He had no official grave until 2004, when a heart which DNA testing showed to be that of the ten-year-old King was interred by French royalists along with his family in the royal crypt beneath St. Denis. <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MLB6juYPoCI/U9ZrU0F_kPI/AAAAAAAAAHk/klu9rfQJjXM/s1600/Louis_Charles_of_France.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MLB6juYPoCI/U9ZrU0F_kPI/AAAAAAAAAHk/klu9rfQJjXM/s1600/Louis_Charles_of_France.jpg" height="200" width="156" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Louis XVII, titular <br />King of France and Navarre</td></tr></tbody></table><br />My visit to Paris caused my mind to dwell somewhat on the fate of royal martyrs, among whom three in particular leap to mind; Charles I of Great Britain, Louis XVI of France (of course), and Nicholas II of Russia. All three of these monarchs were deposed and then executed- or, rather, murdered- by revolutionaries. But the similarities do not end here. What struck me thinking about these three men and their fates is that all three were, by all accounts, personally very moral and upright individuals. All three loved their wives and not one of them was known to have ever had an affair, despite the nature of royals' arranged marriages making royal mistresses common throughout history. All three were men of strong Christian faith- Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox. All three men were regarded as reactionaries and tyrants, but all three certainly&nbsp;regarded themselves as being in the right and as defending the true law of their respective kingdoms (or empire, in the case of Nicholas). Louis and Charles both showed great courage when facing their deaths, Charles I famously wearing two shirts in case the cold caused him to shiver and give the impression that he was afraid, while Louis XVI exclaimed to the crowd as he was strapped down, "My people, I am innocent!" The executioner, Charles Henri Samson, later said that the King&nbsp;"bore all this with a composure and a firmness which has surprised us all," putting&nbsp;it down to the King's&nbsp;deep religiosity.&nbsp;Nicholas II, of course, was not even given the courtesy of a show trial by the Bolsheviks; supposedly his last words after being told he and his family were to be put to death were simply, "What? What?" <br /><br />Finally, all three, upon closer inspection of their lives and reigns, appear to have been more incompetent or weak than outright malicious. Even then, in more ordinary times they might have been remembered as pious, much-loved sovereigns- not particularly militarily successful, or great reformers, but fine&nbsp;rulers nonetheless. It seems to me that when revolution rears its ugly head, it is the gentlest and most moral of rulers who tend to fall. There is a reason for this- strong, politically savvy kings like Louis XIV or the "Iron Tsar" Nicholas I do not fall to revolutionaries. They crush them.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-afc_XL5FgWs/U9Zq1mpHehI/AAAAAAAAAHc/qkbiRrryczk/s1600/Charles_I_King_Martyr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-afc_XL5FgWs/U9Zq1mpHehI/AAAAAAAAAHc/qkbiRrryczk/s1600/Charles_I_King_Martyr.jpg" height="200" width="156" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles I, King and Martyr</td></tr></tbody></table>Some might argue that this is a weakness of monarchy; one weak king at a bad time may spell disaster. But Charles, Louis and Nicholas all faced colossal challenges; in similarly troubling times, democracy does not tend to do well either. In fact, it has a tendency to commit suicide by raising dictators to power. Democracy works well enough in stable countries like the United States and the United Kingdom. In the Middle East, however, or in Ukraine, or Thailand, one sees that democracy has not coped well with challenges such as sectarianism or social upheaval. Likewise, if King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were King and Queen of a modern day France, they would likely be beloved of their people. The much-vilified Marie Antoinette, with her personally charitable nature and exasperation with the stifling traditions of the French court, would probably be seen as a Queen of the People; the <em>libelles</em> that turned the populace on her on the eve of the revolution, with horrifying tales of degeneracy and decadence, would be dubbed "trolls" or prosecuted for, erm, <em>libel</em>. As monarchists should know, the Queen never uttered that immortal line, "Let them eat cake;"&nbsp;she did say, on the occasion of her and&nbsp;Louis' coronation,&nbsp;"It is quite certain that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness."<br /><br />In many ways, the sufferings of these monarchs and their families after their overthrow are symbolic of the sufferings of their people. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were followed to the guillotine by thousands of Frenchmen, ironically&nbsp;including many of those who had sentenced the King and Queen to death themselves. Millions of Nicholas II's former subjects perished in the gulags of the Soviet Union, many more than had ever been killed by the Tsarist regime. And Cromwell's Protectorate, which came to power in the aftermath of Charles I's execution and wielded power until Richard Cromwell was overthrown and the Stuart monarchy restored in the 1660 Restoration, was almost a prototype for modern totalitarian regimes- from banning Christmas in 1647 as part of an effort to force Puritan beliefs on the population to the brutal Cromwellian conquest of Ireland from 1649 to 1653, which has been described as genocidal. It is, of course, important that we don't forget the thousands of anonymous individuals who lost their lives or livelihoods to the march of revolution, but in remembering the sovereigns and their families&nbsp;who were themselves martyred for their beliefs, in a way we are symbolically remembering all of those who were lost in the revolutions that toppled those sovereigns and their monarchies. And one martyr is a powerful thing; one martyr who serves as representative for millions more is surely even more powerful.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TGDabkHib6Y/U9ZtAq69PxI/AAAAAAAAAH0/T98bN793jQQ/s1600/Russian_Imperial_Family_1911.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TGDabkHib6Y/U9ZtAq69PxI/AAAAAAAAAH0/T98bN793jQQ/s1600/Russian_Imperial_Family_1911.jpg" height="281" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Official portrait of Nicholas II of Russia and his family<br />in 1911, seven years before they were murdered.</td></tr></tbody></table>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-90909906662621536752014-07-02T06:51:00.000-07:002014-07-02T06:51:37.108-07:00How British Is The Queen?We've all heard it said; "the Royal Family aren't really British, they're German." Ignorant republicans with a very limited understanding of British history and the genealogy of the House of Windsor love repeating this line, especially as a counter-argument to monarchists' claims that the monarchy is a key symbol of British culture and identity. Of course, the truth is that the Royal Family <em>are</em> partially of German descent; the current crop of royals are descended from His Royal Highness Albert, the Prince Consort, consort to Queen Victoria and Prince<strong> </strong>of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His son, Edward VII, was of his house and therefore a Saxe-Coburg and Gotha himself, as was George V until he changed the name of the royal house to "Windsor" by royal edict during the First World War in response to high anti-German sentiment. But Prince Albert was the last truly German member of the Royal Family, and he died in 1861! Every monarch since has been born on British soil.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4MtmfS4jPEQ/U7QNeQULvbI/AAAAAAAAAHM/PyrFoZJgYqo/s1600/Sophia_Of_Hanover.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4MtmfS4jPEQ/U7QNeQULvbI/AAAAAAAAAHM/PyrFoZJgYqo/s1600/Sophia_Of_Hanover.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sophia, Electress of Hanover, <br />George I's mother</td></tr></tbody></table>Still, when people attempt to claim that the Royal Family "aren't really British," it is not poor old Prince Albert who they pick on. The insistence of some republicans is that in 1714, following the death of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, Parliament found some random Protestant German noble family and imported itself a new Protestant monarch to be King. Therefore, the House of Hanover was simply a "German export" and all descendants of George I are really "German." Firstly, it must be said that many of these people would have a field day if you tried to say that, say, a third-generation Indian immigrant to the UK, who was born in Britain but is entirely of Indian descent, was not <em>really</em> British but Indian. Yet they insist, much like the British National Party who infamously proclaimed that anyone whose ancestors migrated to the UK after 1066 were not entitled to be here, that the family of a German immigrant who arrived in 1714 and have since married into the native population and adopted the English language and British culture are nonetheless not really British but German. It beggars belief.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-upyPtGBuvPQ/U7QMJ1WyogI/AAAAAAAAAHA/uugNRS7wvCE/s1600/Alfred_The_Great.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-upyPtGBuvPQ/U7QMJ1WyogI/AAAAAAAAAHA/uugNRS7wvCE/s1600/Alfred_The_Great.jpg" height="320" width="192" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alfred the Great of Wessex, first <br />Kingof the Anglo-Saxons</td></tr></tbody></table>Secondly, George I was not simply some random German Protestant nobleman. He was only able to claim the throne because he was a descendant of King James VI and I through his daughter, Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, who was George's grandmother. So the Queen is in fact a descendant of the House of Stuart, and through James, can trace her descent back to Henry VII of England whose daughter Margaret was the Queen of James IV, King of Scots (my avatar), and so mother of King James V. And through Henry VII, our current Queen can trace her descent all the way back to William the Conqueror. Not only that, but the Queen is also descended from Matilda of Scotland, Henry I's queen, through their daughter the Holy Roman Empress Matilda and her son, King Henry II. This is significant because Queen Matilda's mother, <span dir="auto">Saint Margaret of Scotland, was the granddaughter of Edmund Ironside, one of the Anglo-Saxon Kings of England and a member of England's first royal house, the House of Wessex. This makes the Queen a descendant of none other than Alfred the Great. </span><br /><span dir="auto"></span><br /><span dir="auto">So the Queen has a fairly sound claim to the English throne. But what about her Scottish credentials? Well, the first Stuart (or Stewart) King of Scots was Robert II, from whom James IV, and so the Queen, was descended. Robert II took the throne of Scotland in 1371 after the death of King David II, the last of the House of Bruce. Robert's claim to the throne was through his descent from Robert I- the famous Robert the Bruce who defeated the English at Bannockburn- whose daughter Marjorie <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rJKFgzgBW7s/U7QLqJGzG3I/AAAAAAAAAG4/pZ9SwLOGexc/s1600/Kenneth_MacAlpin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rJKFgzgBW7s/U7QLqJGzG3I/AAAAAAAAAG4/pZ9SwLOGexc/s1600/Kenneth_MacAlpin.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kenneth MacAlpin, according <br />tolegend the first King of Scots</td></tr></tbody></table>was Robert II's mother. So the Queen is descended from Robert the Bruce. The Bruce himself was able to claim the throne of Scotland because he was a&nbsp;fourth great-grandson of King David I of the Royal House of Dunkeld. The House of Dunkeld was founded by King Duncan I of Scotland- the very same Duncan killed by Macbeth, although the historical Duncan was a young man slain in battle against Macbeth's army, not an elderly king murdered in his sleep. Duncan was the grandson of Malcolm II of Scotland (<em>Máel Coluim mac Cináeda </em>or Malcom, Son of Kenneth in medieval Gaelic<strong>)</strong>, who was the last King of Scots from the House of Alpin, and a descendant of none other than King Kenneth MacAlpin (<em>Cináed mac Ailpín</em><strong>)</strong>, the semi-legendary founder of Scotland who united the Scots and the Picts in the 9th century AD to found the Kingdom of Alba. </span><br /><span dir="auto"></span><br /><span dir="auto">So, our "foreign" Queen is in fact the descendant of both the semi-legendary first King of Scotland and the semi-legendary first King of England. A German import, indeed. </span>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-27160883080054790212014-06-26T07:59:00.000-07:002014-06-26T07:59:00.319-07:00Elizabeth of House Windsor, Second of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men...<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dG3eNQmd8eo/U6wyMHr4XjI/AAAAAAAAAGc/VEH5T-gACBg/s1600/MI-Queen-Elizabeth-Visits-Game-of-Thrones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dG3eNQmd8eo/U6wyMHr4XjI/AAAAAAAAAGc/VEH5T-gACBg/s1600/MI-Queen-Elizabeth-Visits-Game-of-Thrones.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Queen reportedly noted that the Iron Throne looked quite<br />&nbsp;uncomfortable&nbsp;to sit on, according to actress Maisie Williams<br />&nbsp;who plays Arya Stark.</td></tr></tbody></table>As a royalist and a fan of the American HBO show Game of Thrones, as well as the book series by George RR Martin that the show is based on, A Song of Ice and Fire, I was thrilled to bits yesterday when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visited the show's set in Northern Ireland yesterday and spoke with some of the actors and actresses from the show- Lena Headey (Queen Cersei Lannister), Maisie Williams (Arya Not-A-Lady Stark), Sophie Turner (Lady Sansa Stark), Kit Harington (Jon Snow, who knows nothing), Rose Leslie (Ygritte, who told Jon Snow he knows nothing)&nbsp;and Conleth Hill (Lord Varys, "the Spider.") There was, I gather, much disappointment on the internet that Her Majesty never sat on the Iron Throne of Westeros, though there are many slightly surreal images of the Queen (Elizabeth, not Cersei) looking at it.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oHwaz8B32es/U6wzFMUPKWI/AAAAAAAAAGo/9viaEmCc15o/s1600/queen_meets_GoT_cast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oHwaz8B32es/U6wzFMUPKWI/AAAAAAAAAGo/9viaEmCc15o/s1600/queen_meets_GoT_cast.jpg" height="188" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Believe me, girls, the Starks and Lannisters have <br /><i>nothing </i>on my ancestors!"<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>&nbsp;In my mind, the conversation between the Queen and the cast went something like this:<br /><br /><span style="text-align: center;">"So you're&nbsp;saying that&nbsp;whoever sits on this throne is ruler of the Seven Kingdoms?"</span><br /><br />"Yes, ma'am."<br /><br />"Bah, amateurs. I rule sixteen."<br /><br />On a side note, I watched a piece about the Queen's visit on BBC news last night. The presenter demonstrated perfect comic timing when discussing Her Majesty's tour of Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast, noting that the Queen would be given a tour by two former inmates- First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. You couldn't make it up. Both politicians were interred for a time at the now closed prison for involvement with unionist and Irish republican paramilitaries, respectively. Still, the fact that such a visit could happen is testament to how far reconciliation efforts in Ulster have come over the last decade; just ten years ago, a royal tour of Crumlin Road would have been unthinkable. This visit was far more significant than just a chance to take pictures of the Queen next to the Iron Throne- but admit it, that <i>was </i>pretty cool.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uRFe-vlz8Ww/U6wxqQTXE7I/AAAAAAAAAGU/_-a9ZEB6VHE/s1600/JoinTheRealm_sigil.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uRFe-vlz8Ww/U6wxqQTXE7I/AAAAAAAAAGU/_-a9ZEB6VHE/s1600/JoinTheRealm_sigil.png" height="320" width="219" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Windsors Are Coming.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-48395836289554985752014-06-20T12:14:00.000-07:002014-06-20T12:14:10.978-07:00¡Nuevo Rey de España!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G36SC5DBB1k/U6R4SBUEdbI/AAAAAAAAAFo/TFcdu7he_AA/s1600/felipevi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G36SC5DBB1k/U6R4SBUEdbI/AAAAAAAAAFo/TFcdu7he_AA/s1600/felipevi.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spain's new King salutes his people, accompanied by new his new<br />royal consort Queen Letzia.</td></tr></tbody></table>Yesterday, Felipe, Prince of Asturias was sworn in as King of Spain in the country's parliament, becoming King Felipe VI and receiving from his father King Juan Carlos the royal sash of a captain-general, the highest rank in the Spanish army, since 1999 reserved for the reigning King of Spain- the Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Armed Forces. The ceremony was a low budget affair, with the King sensibly opting not to go for an opulent celebration at a time when Spain's economic troubles continue to be a headache. His Catholic&nbsp;Majesty was welcomed by his people with great flair; they turned out in droves, flags waving, to cheer the new King and shout out <em>¡Viva el Rey! </em>In accordance with Spanish tradition, there was no coronation ceremony, but the royal crown was on display at the inauguration. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-778zQXqkD5Q/U6R6vXVPqPI/AAAAAAAAAF4/3eRX72BGnfk/s1600/CrownOfSpain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-778zQXqkD5Q/U6R6vXVPqPI/AAAAAAAAAF4/3eRX72BGnfk/s1600/CrownOfSpain.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>In his first speech as King of Spain, Felipe VI addressed the growth of Basque and Catalonian separatist movements, <a href="http://www.thelocal.es/20140619/live-king-felipe-to-be-crowned-king-of-spain">saying, "We all fit in a diverse Spain."</a> His Catholic Majesty went on, "This relationship between cultures and traditions has its best expression in our languages. Alongside Castellano, the other languages of Spain form part of our common heritage, which, as the constitute establishes, should be something worthy of special respect and protection." The King also addressed his country's economic woes, offering "solidarity to citizens who have suffered the blows of the crisis in recent years."&nbsp;Speaking of the monarchy itself, he said: "my personal conviction is that parliamentary monarchy can and should continue to provide a fundamental service to Spain." I should hope so, sire; there is nothing worse for a royalist than being "<em>plus royaliste que le roi</em><strong>." </strong><br /><strong></strong><br />There was some effort on the part of republicans to ruin the festivities, but the police (quite rightly) took a hardline approach to suppressing protests on what should have been a day of nation celebration- and for the most part, was. Unfortunately, polls suggest that not everyone was proud to be a Spaniard yesterday; <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/60b91a3e-f6f2-11e3-b271-00144feabdc0.html#slide5">a poll indicated that a clear majority of Spaniards aged 18-34 want to see Spain’s constitutional monarchy abolished in favour of a republic.</a> However, older Spaniards remain overwhelmingly pro-monarchy, probably because they remember what life was like before King Juan Carlos brought freedom to his kingdom and ended the Francoist dictatorship. The young, ever foolish, naïve, ill-informed and short-sighted, do not remember what life under a republic was like. They glaze over the horrific crimes of the Spanish Second Republic, remembering only the propaganda about "equality," "liberty" and "freedom". But only under the sheltering wing of&nbsp;constitutional monarchy has some degree of freedom and democracy survived and prospered in Spain. <br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Lz6-sKkeR8/U6SHCLbiDsI/AAAAAAAAAGE/cDkSVWdR5iU/s1600/viva_el_rey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Lz6-sKkeR8/U6SHCLbiDsI/AAAAAAAAAGE/cDkSVWdR5iU/s1600/viva_el_rey.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spaniards celebrate their new King</td></tr></tbody></table>For my part, though not a Spanish subject, I was proudly displaying the Spanish flag (the <em>real*</em> Spanish flag, not that Republican abomination with the purple stripe) from my window yesterday, though anyone who saw it likely thinks I was supporting Spain in the world cup. As monarchists, we must do our bit to forward the cause, and the best way to do this is to proudly display our allegiance to all surviving monarchies, the world over. If we are fortunate, it might spark a discussion with a curious friend, co-worker or neighbour, and the seeds of monarchism might be planted- and by that, I mean <em>real</em> monarchism, not just reading about the Duchess of Cambridge in <em>Hello!</em> magazine but actively campaigning to raise awareness of monarchy's vital political, cultural and societal role. For every foreign republican egging on Spain's republicans in the comments section of <em>The Guardian</em> or any other Leftist, anti-royalist site, we must have a monarchist praising the House of Bourbon and urging Spaniards not to abandon their heritage. To the people of Spain, I say to you; <em>¡<span class="hps">Viva España!&nbsp; ¡Viva el Rey! ¡Por <span class="hps">Dios, Patria</span> <span class="hps">y Rey!**</span></span></em><br /><em><span class="hps"><span class="hps"></span></span></em><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/0S19dt7JWQs?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><em><span class="hps"><span class="hps"></span></span></em><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">*by happy coincidence, "real" is "royal" in Spanish. Get <em>real</em>, Spaniards!</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">**and sorry if I accidentally butcher your language. I'm a Briton, we're not good at foreign languages.</span>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-48696551328794352092014-06-11T04:44:00.000-07:002014-06-11T04:44:03.843-07:00Monarchy and Democracy<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gsNBCD3qvbc/U5hAQlGz94I/AAAAAAAAAFQ/Fz_ajMu0Heo/s1600/RoyalArmsOfSpain.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gsNBCD3qvbc/U5hAQlGz94I/AAAAAAAAAFQ/Fz_ajMu0Heo/s1600/RoyalArmsOfSpain.png" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Spain</td></tr></tbody></table>It's been a while since my last blog post, mainly because it's exam season for me right now, so I really haven't had much time for blogging. Which is a shame, because there has been a great deal to talk about over the last two or three weeks for those of a conservative monarchist persuasion. The biggest news for me, at least, was King Juan Carlos of Spain's decision to abdicate, announced the 2nd June. There has naturally been a lot of buzz in the media and "blogosphere" about His Catholic Majesty's announcement (King Juan Carlos never used the style "Catholic Majesty," but I still like to as it is the traditional manner of address for Spanish monarchs and tradition is precious), but the article that caught my interest the most was <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/06/03/comment-kings-and-coups-thailand-could-learn-juan-carlos">this article</a>, which looked back on the King's suppression of an attempted nationalist coup d'état in 1981, when His Catholic Majesty ordered a group of military officers who had attempted to seize control of the recently restored Kingdom of Spain and revive the Franco era dictatorship to return to their barracks.<br /><br />The article draws a comparison between King Juan Carlos' actions in 1981 and the recent coup d'état by military forces in Thailand. General Prayuth Chan-ocha led the coup last month to overthrow the caretaker government and restore order after months of protests by the rival "Yellowshirt" and "Redshirt" factions. For those unfamiliar with Thailand's troubles, the Yellowshirts are largely middle-class, urban royalists who opposed the corrupt government of Yingluck Shinawatra, who many saw as a puppet of her brother the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was overthrown by a previous military coup in 2006 and has been living in exile ever since. The "Redshirts" are largely rural agricultural workers from the north of the country, who support the Shinawatras and their <span dir="auto">Pheu Thai Party because of their populist policies which benefit the lower classes. Recently the Yellowshirts succeeded in their aims of ousting Yingluck Shinawatra from power, but were unimpressed with the fact that the Constitutional Court who deposed Yingluck allowed a rump of her government to remain power as the caretaker government until a new election. Meanwhile, Red Shirts took to the streets to protest Yingluck's removal, and Thailand found itself on the brink of anarchy as the two factions fought one another.</span><br /><span dir="auto"></span><br /><span dir="auto">Amidst this chaos,&nbsp;General Prayuth seized power. To legitimise his new military-run government, Prayuth sought the support of the revered King of Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Initially, Prayuth was going to have an audience with the King who would then confirm the legitimacy of his government. Then, Prayuth was going to write a letter to the King. Finally Prayuth announced that the King had endorsed his regime in a press conference. Cue the tide of condemnation by outraged westerners. It's all the King's fault, they said. Of course an undemocratic institution like a monarchy would support an undemocratic dictatorship! Yet things may not be as they appear. After General Prayuth's declaration last month, the customary televised address by the King confirming his support for the coup did not occur (as I mentioned earlier, this is not the first time the military has stepped in to restore order in Thailand after the failure of elected governments), and most tellingly, the letter presented by Prayuth as proof of the King's support lacked the customary royal seal. There have been questions over whether the ailing 86 year old&nbsp;monarch is in any condition to be making decisions like whether or not to endorse a military coup. </span><br /><span dir="auto"></span><br /><span dir="auto">The article I linked to in my first paragraph makes no mention of the Thai King's previous actions to protect the constitution and Thailand's democratic system. In 1992, Thailand experienced another military coup. General Suchinda Kraprayoon overthrew the government of Chatichai Choonhavan, and took power as Prime Minister despite not being elected to Parliament. The Thai people responded with a wave of protests led by former general Chamlong Srimuang. Suchinda ordered that Chamlong be arrested and declared a state of emergency and made gatherings of more than ten people illegal. On the 20th May, Princess Sirindhorn&nbsp;and Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn both made televised appeals for calm and an end to the violence. Later that day, the King himself broadcast a meeting between himself, Suchinda and Chamlong, with the two generals kneeling before the King as custom dictated; the King remonstrated them for their conduct and urged them to put an end to their confrontation and work together through parliamentary procedures, for the good of the nation which, the King said, belongs to "everyone, not one or two specific people. The problems exist because we don't talk to each other and resolve them together. The problems arise from 'bloodthirstiness'. People can lose their minds when they resort to violence. Eventually, they don't know why they fight each other and what the problems they need to resolve are. They merely know that they must overcome each other and they must be the only winner. This no way leads to victory, but only danger. There will only be losers, only the losers. Those who confront each other will all be the losers. And the loser of the losers will be the Nation. ... For what purpose are you telling yourself that you're the winner when you're standing upon the ruins and debris?".</span><br /><span dir="auto"></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/27/Black_May_Thailand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/27/Black_May_Thailand.jpg" height="222" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">His Majesty the King of Thailand, right, instructs the feuding generals<br />Suchinda Kraprayoon and Chamlong Srimuang to put their grievances<br />aside for the good of the nation.</td></tr></tbody></table><span dir="auto">The King's intervention ended the violence; Suchinda released Chamlong and announced an amnesty for the protesters. He also agreed to support an amendment requiring the Prime Minister to be elected. Chamlong asked the demonstrators to disperse, and&nbsp;Suchinda shortly afterwards&nbsp;resigned as Prime Minister of Thailand. Royal intervention brought the violence to an end. King Bhumibol Adulyadej acted on that day with much the same courage and love for his people and for freedom&nbsp;as King Juan Carlos did in 1981. Those who criticise the Thai King should brush up on their history. More recently, the King refused a request by the loudly royalist Yellowshirts to appoint a Prime Minister without the consent of Parliament, as doing so would be unconstitutional. Clearly this man is a despot! Why, then, has King Bhumibol Adulyadej given his blessing to this military coup? The King has not been seen for months now, and is known to be very ill. Perhaps His Majesty simply isn't in any position to be standing up to coup leaders. It's been suggested that the King is in fact comatose at this point. These are sad thoughts; few modern heads of state deserve the respect that the King of Thailand has earned. But even if he cannot put an end to the infighting in person, the King's words in that speech from May, 1992 should echo down the years. Thais today would do well to listen to their King, even if he hasn't the strength to make himself heard.</span><br /><span dir="auto"></span><br /><span dir="auto">I am a strong believer that monarchy is a strong institution because it is an adaptable institution. The constitutional monarchies of modern Europe evolved from the feudal monarchies of the high middle ages, through the Age of Absolutism, to take the form they now possess. Monarchy is compatible with almost any other form of government, including democracy, and the examples of Juan Carlos and Bhumibol Adulyadej demonstrate that even in a&nbsp;democratic system where power is mainly focused in the hands of elected politicians,&nbsp;a monarchy is both relevant and advantageous, providing stability and a check on the power of other institutions. With the King of Thailand in ill health and his heir apparent, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, spending the recent political crisis in the United Kingdom the future of Thailand and the Thai monarchy looks increasingly uncertain. Yet so long as he lives, and no doubt&nbsp;long after, King Bhumibol Adulyadej will be a rallying point for Thais as the man who ended a potentially violent conflict by ordering two men to get down on their knees and work out their problems together. The Spanish, by contrast, have a relatively certain future, with an heir apparent- Felipe, Prince of Asturias, soon to be King Felipe VI- who has shown every sign of one day being an fine monarch. Even so, <a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/spanish-abdication-boosts-republican-cause-023402560.html">there are calls for a Third Spanish Republic</a>, even though the current constitutional monarchy has been the first stable democratic state in Spanish history and the two previous republics have failed. The people of Spain should look to history, especially their own, and especially the actions of King Juan Carlos, the man who gave them the&nbsp;very freedoms they now use to call for his son's deposition. </span><br /><span dir="auto"></span><br /><span dir="auto">Above all else, in any system be it constitutional or absolute, democratic or not, a monarchy stands for law and order. Monarchism is all about legitimacy, and this is what differentiates it from any other non-democratic movement- and often even from democracy. The monarch is the embodiment of the State and the Law, and its premier defender, because he or she draws <em>their</em> legitimacy from that law. I am reminded, curiously enough, of another monarch who is most often remembered as an opponent of democracy, and his words on the nature of power and legitimacy; </span><br /><span dir="auto"></span><br /><span dir="auto"><em><span style="font-size: large;">"If I would have given way to an arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the power of the sword, I needed not to have come here; and therefore I tell you (and I pray God it be not laid to your charge) that I am the martyr of the people."</span></em></span><br /><span dir="auto">- Charles I, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Martyr of the People</span><br /><span dir="auto"></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FyH43qsVi60/U5hA1go80cI/AAAAAAAAAFY/YnEdVAulr3g/s1600/Charles_I_Insulted_by_Cromwell's_Soldiers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FyH43qsVi60/U5hA1go80cI/AAAAAAAAAFY/YnEdVAulr3g/s1600/Charles_I_Insulted_by_Cromwell's_Soldiers.jpg" height="178" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles I, King and Martyr, is mocked by Oliver Cromwell's<br />soldiers</td></tr></tbody></table><span dir="auto"></span>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-89123618781870392672014-05-23T14:16:00.002-07:002014-05-23T14:19:54.024-07:00Reacting to NeoreactionRecently I have been taking an interest in an internet-based political movement called the "neoreactionary" movement- in practice, consisting of little more than a handful of bloggers who have used the medium of the internet very successfully to generate interest in their activities and philosophy. More pompously referred to as the "Dark Enlightenment," this fledgling ideology has been surprisingly well developed. The founder goes by the name Mencius Moldbug, who coined the term "Dark Enlightenment" and may or may not be a rejected&nbsp;Marvel villain. His thoughts can be found over at his blog <a href="http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com.es/">Unqualified Reservations</a>. Mr Moldbug is not very good at being succinct, and his posts are horrendously long and tedious- and this is coming from someone who managed to wade through <em>The Communist Manifesto</em>. As such I must confess that I have managed to conquer very little of Mr Moldbug's writings myself, but have relied principally on secondary sources for my understanding of neoreaction and the "Dark Enlightenment."<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tgrktL0k1B0/U3-6PBm4MdI/AAAAAAAAAFA/Y40tB4glVyc/s1600/Edward_III_Black_Prince_14thc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tgrktL0k1B0/U3-6PBm4MdI/AAAAAAAAAFA/Y40tB4glVyc/s1600/Edward_III_Black_Prince_14thc.jpg" height="320" width="277" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edward, the Black Prince, kneels before his father <br />King Edward III; a vision of a world neoreactionaries<br />would like to see back, perhaps.</td></tr></tbody></table>Other neoreactionary blogs, or blogs associated to some degree with Moldbug and his views, include <a href="http://www.moreright.net/">More&nbsp;Right</a>, run by a small group of neoreactionary thinkers ; <a href="http://antidem.wordpress.com/">The Anti-Democracy Activist</a>, an anti-democratic, traditionalist blogger who has occasionally spoke of Moldbug with praise; <a href="http://occamsrazormag.wordpress.com/">Occam's Razor</a>, who provides us with "reactionary musings from the Dark Enlightenment"; <a href="https://foseti.wordpress.com/">Foseti</a>, who is mentioned everywhere and therefore must be important;&nbsp;and <a href="http://www.xenosystems.net/neoreaction/">Outside In</a>, another neoreactionary blog. Of course, there are others. These are just the ones I've come across and managed to read a little bit of. It's a very diverse group of people, with links to various other blogger communities that I had no idea existed, such as the "Manosphere". Which is about men, I'm sort of guessing. My interest in these bloggers was sparked by the revelation that at least a sizable proportion of them are monarchists, advocating for the return of hereditary monarchy and aristocracy (they are largely American, of course; here in the UK we still <em>have</em> hereditary monarchy and aristocracy, thank heavens, though they're somewhat watered down these days).&nbsp;The neoreactionary I have read the most, <a href="http://www.moreright.net/author/anissimov/">Michael Anissimov</a> who is one of several&nbsp;contributors over at More Right, is particularly keen on monarchy, aristocracy and tradition. He is also a member of the "techno-commercialist" faction within the neoreactionary caucus, more on which later.<br /><br />Apart from a common (though apparently not universal) desire to revive Europe's hereditary elites, there are a number of other canons of neoreactionary thought. Foremost among these is the idea of "The Cathedral," which neoreactionaries stridently oppose. "The Cathedral" is the neoreactionary name for the informal consensus between governments, the media and&nbsp;educators that supports Progressive ideology and works to silence any competing theory by branding any opposition as "evil" and "regressive" or "backwards." This is&nbsp;a great conspiracy that, like Goldman Sachs, can be imagined as a giant vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, sucking it dry. The Cathedral&nbsp;likes democracy and equality. Neoreactionaries therefore oppose both, and instead believe in strict social hierarchies.&nbsp;I'm a fan of hierarchies myself. However, beyond this there is a large degree of disagreement between competing factions of neoreactionaries. Some neoreactionaries have invented a system that classifies them into three distinct, but overlapping, groups; techno-commercialists, theonomists/religious traditionalists, and <strike>racists</strike> ethnicists/nationalists. <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RCM2F-tzfxM/U3-u_3IKnsI/AAAAAAAAAEo/JH30Y6JFlEs/s1600/darkenlightenment2.png" height="181" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the blog <a href="http://habitableworlds.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/visualizing-neoreaction/">Habitable Worlds</a>, a more complex <br />breakdown of the "Dark Enlightenment" </td></tr></tbody></table>The techno-commercialists appear to have largely arrived at neoreaction via right-wing libertarianism. They are defiant free marketeers, sharing with other ultra-capitalists such as Randian Objectivists a preoccupation with "efficiency," a blind trust in the power of the free market, private property, globalism and the onward march of technology. However, they are also believers in the ideal of small states, free movement and absolute or feudal monarchies with no form of democracy. The idea of "exit," predominantly a techno-commercialist viewpoint but found among other neoreactionaries too, essentially comes down to the idea that people should be able to freely exit their native country if they are unsatisfied with its governance- essentially an application of market economics and consumer action to statehood. Indeed, countries are often described in corporate terms, with the King being the CEO and the aristocracy shareholders. <br /><br />The "theonomists" place more emphasis on the religious dimension of neoreaction. They emphasise tradition, divine law, religion rather than race as the defining characteristic of "tribes" of peoples and traditional, patriarchal families. They are the closest group in terms of ideology to "classical" or, if you will, "palaeo-reactionaries" such as the High Tories, the Carlists&nbsp;and French Ultra-royalists. Often Catholic and often ultramontanist. Finally, there's the "ethnicist" lot, who believe in racial segregation and have developed a new form of racial ideology called "Human Biodiversity" (HBD) which says people of African heritage are naturally less intelligent than people of Caucasian and east Asian heritage. Of course, the scientific community considers the idea that there are any genetic differences between human races beyond melanin levels in the skin and other cosmetic factors to be utterly false, but presumably this is because they are controlled by "The Cathedral." They like "tribal solidarity," tribes being defined by shared ethnicity, and distrust outsiders.<br /><br />Overlap between these groups is considerable, but there are also vast differences not just between them but within them. What binds them together is common opposition to "The Cathedral" and to "progressive" ideology. Some of their criticisms of democracy and modern society are well-founded, and some of them make good points in defence of the monarchical system. However, I don't much like them, and I doubt they'd much like me. <br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cxSdpYUyBRA/U3-wQH4XBaI/AAAAAAAAAEw/VxhwDaOtqeA/s1600/Louis_XVIII,_the_Desired.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cxSdpYUyBRA/U3-wQH4XBaI/AAAAAAAAAEw/VxhwDaOtqeA/s1600/Louis_XVIII,_the_Desired.jpg" height="320" width="206" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Louis XVIII, <em>le Désiré, </em>of France,<br />&nbsp;first King of France and Navarre <br />after the Bourbon Restoration.</td></tr></tbody></table>Whereas neoreactionaries are keen on the free market and praise capitalism, unregulated capitalism is something I am wary of. Capitalism saw the collapse of traditional monarchies in Europe in the 19th century, and the first revolutions were by capitalists seeking to establish democratic, capitalist republics where the bourgeoisie replaced the aristocratic elite as the ruling class; setting an example revolutionary socialists would later follow. Capitalism, when unregulated,&nbsp;leads to monopolies, exploitation of the working class, unsustainable practices in pursuit of increased short-term profits, globalisation and materialism. Personally, I prefer distributist economics, which embrace private property rights but emphasise widespread ownership of wealth, small partnerships and cooperatives replacing private corporations as the basic units of the nation's economy. And although critical of democracy, the idea that any form of elected representation for the lower classes is anathaema is not consistent with my viewpoint; my ideal government would not be absolute or feudal monarchy, but executive constitutional monarchy with a strong monarch exercising executive powers and the legislative role being at least partially controlled by an elected parliament- more like the Bourbon <span dir="auto">Restoration than the <em>Ancien Régime, </em>though I occasionally say <em>"Vive l'</em><span dir="auto"><em>Ancien Régime!" </em>on forums or in comments to annoy progressive types. Finally, I don't believe in racialism in any form. I tend to attribute preoccupations with racial superiority to deep insecurity which people find the need to suppress by convincing themselves that they are "racially superior" to others, in absence of any actual talent or especial ability to take pride in. The 20th century has shown us where dividing people up based on their genetics leads us, and it is not somewhere I care to return to.</span></span><br /><span dir="auto"><span dir="auto"></span></span><br /><span dir="auto"><span dir="auto">In conclusion, neoreactionaries would probably consider me to have been influenced by "The Cathedral," with my conciliatory view towards democracy, my rejection of racial differences and my criticisms of free market capitalism. God only knows what they'd make of my decidedly progressive views on environmental and animal rights issues. In future, in addition to more discussion of the fast-approaching Scottish independence referendum and Scottish/British monarchical history, I would like to delve more into my own ideological viewpoints and draw a picture of a traditionalist, monarchist, even reactionary world quite different to that presented by the neoreactionary movement. Still, I welcome debate, I welcome new support for the international reactionary cause, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss with neoreactionaries our mutual beliefs and interests- and perhaps even win some over to my side of the fence, and learn a little myself. </span></span><br /><span dir="auto"><span dir="auto"></span></span><br /><span dir="auto"><span dir="auto">Not too much, though. An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded.</span></span>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-86719029628385035002014-05-22T13:07:00.000-07:002014-05-22T13:07:02.735-07:00The Prince of Wales on Vladimir Putin<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FCU70qwr8Ss/U35XSUcpy1I/AAAAAAAAAEQ/kxsPQUweCag/s1600/prince-charles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FCU70qwr8Ss/U35XSUcpy1I/AAAAAAAAAEQ/kxsPQUweCag/s1600/prince-charles.jpg" height="320" width="250" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">HRH Charles, Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, <br />Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and <br />Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, occasional prophet.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Recently the press has been getting itself worked up about the alleged comments of our future King, Charles, Prince of Wales and Duke of Rothesay, among other things. In light of the Scottish monarchy theme of this blog- none other than King James IV of Scotland is my avatar and the blog's mascot- I will henceforth refer to him as Duke of Rothesay. His Royal Highness is <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-charles/10845309/Prince-Charles-compares-Vladimir-Putin-to-Adolf-Hitler.html">reported to have likened</a> the strongman ruler of the pseudo-democratic Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, to a certain Adolf who governed Germany in the 1930s and 40s and is generally considered to have been a very bad person. The remarks were made by the Duke of Rothesay in a private conversation with Marienne Ferguson, a museum volunteer at the Canadian Museum of Immigration, Nova Scotia. Mrs Ferguson&nbsp;lost relatives during the Holocaust, and was telling Prince Charles about her experiences when he apparently noted that&nbsp;"now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler."<br /><br />Should the heir to the throne be making such remarks in public? That's a moot point, because the conversation was private. He certainly didn't offend Mrs Ferguson, who told the press "I must say that I agree with him and am sure a lot of people do. I was very surprised that he made the comment as I know they [members of the Royal Family] aren’t meant to say these things but it was very heartfelt and honest." I certainly agree with the Duke of Rothesay and Mrs Ferguson on this. Many Ukrainians and other eastern Europeans who feel threatened by Russia's aggression probably stand with us on this. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/05/21/ed-miliband-says-prince-charles-has-a-point-in-comparing-vladimir-putin-to-adolf-hitler_n_5368082.html">Labour leader Edward Miliband is with us, too.</a> Are you?<br /><br />Of course, Russia says His Highness' remarks are <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/22/prince-charles-putin-hitler-outrageous-russia">outrageous</a>. "We view the use of the western press by members of the British royal family to spread the propaganda campaign against Russia on a pressing issue – that is, the situation in Ukraine – as unacceptable, outrageous and low," says Alexander Lukashevich, who is apparently the voice of the Russian foreign ministry. UK Independence Party leader&nbsp;Nigel Farage, who has expressed admiration for Putin in the past, is with the Russians. You can kiss goodbye to my vote, Nigel. Nick Clegg has proved he does sometimes have a rational thought, saying, "I have never been of this view that if you are a member of the Royal Family, somehow you have to enter into some Trappist vow of silence. I think he is entitled to his views. But I don't know whether those were his views because I just don't think providing a running commentary on what were private conversations is useful to anybody. I don't know exactly what he did or didn't say in that conversation because he thought it was a private conversation." <br /><br />Very sensible, Mr Clegg. David Cameron is also being sensible; "I am not going to comment on someone's private conversation, least of all Prince Charles," he told Channel 4 News. Still, the Russians are determined to make this into a foreign relations crisis. They want a meeting with the Foreign Office, in order to "clarify" the Duke of Rothesay's remarks. The Foreign Office intends to use the opportunity to reiterate their disapproval of Russia's actions in Ukraine. Perhaps they could also give the Russians a wee history lesson. In 1938, shortly after the Anschluss was completed merging Austria into Germany, ethnic Germans in the fertile Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia began agitating for autonomy. Adolf Hitler responded by accusing the Czechoslovakian government of oppressing Sudeten Germans, and signed a secret directive for mobilisation to begin for war with Czechoslovakia. Under pressure from the British and French, the Czechoslovakian government agreed to the Sudeten Germans' four demands, only for Sudeten Germans intent on triggering war between Czechoslovakia and Germany to begin a wave of protests that destabilised&nbsp;talks; the Czechoslovakian army was eventually deployed to restore order.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w8XdWGqkH7w/U35YORjcVoI/AAAAAAAAAEY/zW8L1JiZBP4/s1600/czechoslovakia_partion.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w8XdWGqkH7w/U35YORjcVoI/AAAAAAAAAEY/zW8L1JiZBP4/s1600/czechoslovakia_partion.png" height="128" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Partition of Czechoslovakia in 1938,&nbsp;compliments of Wikipedia.</td></tr></tbody></table>Under the pretext of protecting ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakian oppression, Hitler demanded the immediate annexation of the Sudetenland into&nbsp;the&nbsp;German Reich. The&nbsp;British and&nbsp;French governments, desperate to avoid war with Germany, agreed.&nbsp;Czechoslovakia resisted; however, despite the&nbsp;mobilisation of the Czechoslovakian Army and the promise of Soviet aid, the President of Czechoslovakia was unwilling to risk war with Germany without British and French support. On 29 September, the Munich Agreement was signed by Germany, Italy, France, and Britain, effectively ceding the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany without consulting the Czechoslovakian government. Soon after, the Nazis occupied the Sudetenland and forced Czechoslovakia to surrender large chunks of its territory to neighbouring Hungary and- irony of ironies- Poland. Nonetheless, Czechoslovakia would soon be invaded by Germany and all of Bohemia, the modern Czech Republic, annexed. Slovakia was set up as a nominally independent puppet state of the Third Reich.<br /><br />Does all this sound familiar? It should- substitute Czechoslovakia for Ukraine, the Crimea for the Sudetenland and Russia for Germany, and the parallels become clear. Any student of history ought to be able to see how Putin, and ex-KGB agent who has mourned the fall of the Soviet Union in public, has taken actions reminiscent of Hitler in his early days. I can see it, Prince Charles can see it, Mrs Ferguson can see it, Ed Miliband can see it. Russia may not be on the road to ethnic cleansing, but its actions are clearly very sinister. Prince Charles has the right to say as he pleases in a private conversation, but let's say he had said it in a public address&nbsp;instead- perhaps that <em>would</em> have been a misstep, and perhaps he would&nbsp;have been&nbsp;criticised for it. But perhaps people would look back on his utterings fifty years from now, and see him as a latter-day Cassandra, the Winston Churchill of our time, his sound warnings ignored by the people around him. Perhaps we should listen to him now.<br /><br /><em>The views of Russia's true head of state, HIH&nbsp;Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, the legitimate Empress and Autocrat of all the Russias, on the Ukrainian crisis can be found </em><a href="http://www.imperialhouse.ru/"><em>here</em></a><em> at the Imperial House's website. As might be expected the tone is pro-Russian, but much more reconciliatory and measured than that of the Kremlin. I beg Her Imperial Highness' forgiveness if I appear overly critical of Russia's foreign policy here; I assure the Grand Duchess, and other proud Russian patriots, that my issue is entirely with Vladimir Putin and his neo-Soviet comrades, not with the people of Russia. Let us pray cooler heads prevail in east and west. <span lang="ru">Боже, Царя храни! God Save the Queen!</span></em>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-17060896027906940352014-05-02T12:20:00.002-07:002014-05-02T12:20:51.606-07:00307th Anniversary of the Founding of the Kingdom of Great Britain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_LaBmq7Urxc/U2PvIzc4jdI/AAAAAAAAAD4/D3fPspnw0-k/s1600/Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom_svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>&nbsp;</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cs7F7OFaMi8/U2PvaH9u5QI/AAAAAAAAAEA/RoXEPxKMlio/s1600/union_flag_1707.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cs7F7OFaMi8/U2PvaH9u5QI/AAAAAAAAAEA/RoXEPxKMlio/s1600/union_flag_1707.png" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "King's Colours," the national flag of the Kingdom of&nbsp;Great Britain- originally designed on the orders of <br />King James VI and I to be used on English and Scottish ships on the high seas.</td></tr></tbody></table>Yesterday was 1st May, the 307th anniversary of the union of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland to found the new Kingdom of Great Britain. Of course, the two kingdoms had been united under the same monarch since James VI, King of Scots, ascended to the throne of England on 24th March 1603. James VI and I was the first monarch to style himself "King of Great Britain," and had coins minted in Scotland proclaiming himself such; but in England, where his power was not so absolute, coins proclaimed simply as "King of England," and James was officially King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland (Kings of England having claimed the French throne, at least <em>de jure</em>, since 1340, and continuing to do so until George III relinquished the title in 1800) until his death. <br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SQK8_7qW1jQ/U2Psw05a2ZI/AAAAAAAAADk/79Ec8OwCb6s/s1600/Anne_Queen_of_Great_Britain2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SQK8_7qW1jQ/U2Psw05a2ZI/AAAAAAAAADk/79Ec8OwCb6s/s1600/Anne_Queen_of_Great_Britain2.jpg" height="320" width="235" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anne, Queen of Great Britain, the first monarch of <br />a united Kingdom of Great Britain</td></tr></tbody></table>On the 1st March 1707, however, the Acts of Union passed by the Scottish and English Parliaments came into force; both Parliaments merged into a new British Parliament and Anne, Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland became Anne, Queen of Great Britain, France and Ireland. Wikipedia helpfully provides the following quote from historian Simon Schama on the union; "What began as a hostile merger, would end in a full partnership in the most powerful going concern in the world ... it was one of the most astonishing transformations in European history." Certainly, this did begin as something of a hostile merger. Queen Anne had been a key supporter of further integration of her kingdoms since coming to the throne in 1702 at the age of 37,&nbsp; declaring it "very necessary" to conclude a union of England and Scotland in her first speech to the English Parliament. This was in part influenced by the risk of Scotland and England finding themselves under separate monarchs after Anne's death, if she had no children, as the Act of Settlement 1701 designating the Protestant Electress Sophia of Hanover as Anne's heir applied only to England and Ireland, which was not then a truly autonomous kingdom as Scotland was. The Scots, an influential&nbsp;minority of whom wished to preserve the rights of the Stuart dynasty to the throne rather than allow the German Hanovers to take over (and why not? The House of Stuart was a homegrown&nbsp;Scottish dynasty, after all, so such loyalty was more warranted in Scotland than in England), passed the Act of Security in 1704 that reserved for the Scottish Parliament to choose its own monarch following Anne's death, and not the same successor as the one chose by England unless certain conditions were met.<br /><br />These conditions included the full freedom to trade in England&nbsp;for Scottish merchants. At the time, Scotland's economy was in trouble, the ambitious Darien scheme aimed at establishing a Scottish colony in modern day Panama and making Scotland a major international trading power. Unfortunately the Spaniards had scuppered the idea, and Scotland, having invested a quarter of the money circulating within its borders in the scheme since those slimey Dutch and English investors had pulled out, found itself in rather serious debt. Making money was therefore top of the Scots' minds at the time. England decided to fight back with the&nbsp;Alien Act 1705 which threatened Scotland with economic sanctions and declared Scots in England to be aliens (i.e. foreign citizens, despite being subjects of the same Queen, with limited economic and social privileges). Scotland, given a choice between negotiating a full political union with England or withdrawing the Act of Security, opted for union. A new joint Anglo-Scottish commission was set up to negotiate the terms of the union, and the Acts of Union were passed by the Parliaments of England and Scotland. <br /><br />﻿<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SMwOTDUO4I4/U2PtL8IsWSI/AAAAAAAAADw/31LikZPXh_Q/s1600/250px-Floral_Badge_of_Great_Britain_svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SMwOTDUO4I4/U2PtL8IsWSI/AAAAAAAAADw/31LikZPXh_Q/s1600/250px-Floral_Badge_of_Great_Britain_svg.png" height="320" width="225" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Floral badge of the Kingdom of Great Britain, <br />incorporating the Tudor rose and a<br />Scottish thistle.</td></tr></tbody></table>There was little appetite for union in Scotland at the time. Indeed, Parliament had to impose martial law in order to suppress the anti-unionist riots, the Convention of Royal Burghs which represented the interests of the citizenry of Scotland's principal trading towns submitted a petition against the union, and on the day the treaty was signed, the carilloner in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, rang the bells in the tune <em>Why should I be so sad on my wedding day?</em> However, the bride and groom of this arranged marriage did in time come to love each other, it would seem. Great Britain has proved a successful project, becoming the heartland of the industrial revolution and centre of the largest empire in human history, stretching around the globe so that it could be said that the sun never set upon the British Empire. Scots would play a major role in the rise of this empire, and far from the modern historical&nbsp;narrative of Scottish nationalists that Scotland was the first victim of English imperialist aggression, often Scotsmen were the driving force behind Britain's rise to imperial glory. It almost seems that having failed to build an empire on their own, the Scottish elite concocted a dastardly plan to feign submission to the English and then achieve their ambition of a Scottish Empire under the pseudonym of "Great Britain" and with English money and manpower to aid them. In 2002, author Michael Fry published a book, <em>The Scottish Empire</em>, chronicling Scottish involvement in the rise of the British Empire and bringing to light the Scots' status as partners, not servants, of the English in bringing Christianity, parliamentary democracy and afternoon tea to the world. <br /><br />Although the Scots may not have entered the union willingly, in the long term they clearly benefited from it. Today Scotland retains the benefits of being part of a major world power, being defended by one of the world's most powerful militaries and being a part of the world's 6th largest economy, but has also regained much of its autonomy with its own parliament at Holyrood once more. It's a good deal. Scots should not just vote against independence this year for the perks, however; I hope they vote to remain British because they are proud to be British, and because since 1707, we Scots, Englishmen, Welshmen and even the remaining Irishmen in the United Kingdom have built a shared British identity that we can be proud of- without sacrificing our local identities. As a proud son of Scotia and Britannia, I wish you all a happy "Union Day." Long may it endure! The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-76199320400965109522014-04-29T11:54:00.000-07:002014-04-29T11:55:41.580-07:00The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's 3rd Wedding AnniversaryYes, you read the title right. I can't be the only one who finds it hard to process that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge- the media like to call them "Kate and Wills," but here at the Rose and the Thistle we like to keep up standards when it comes to royal etiquette- were married three years ago today. It seems only yesterday we were treated to the pageantry of a royal wedding, to the soon-to-be Duchess' magnificent wedding dress, to Prince William in his smart military uniform, to the glorious procession of the household cavalry accompanying Their Royal Highnesses' back to Buckingham Palace in the state carriage as adoring crowds&nbsp;lined the Mall,&nbsp;holding aloft British and other commonwealth nations' flags and banners with kind words for the newly married couple. It was a spectacular warm-up to an even rarer royal event, 2012's Diamond Jubilee, when Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 60 years on the throne of the United Kingdom, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. Even if, admittedly, several of those nations did not exist as independent states upon her ascension to the throne of the then British Empire and Commonwealth.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.princeofwales.gov.uk/sites/default/files/standardheaderimages/coat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>&nbsp;</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.princeofwales.gov.uk/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/conjugal-coat-of-arms-2_1.jpg?itok=GuES7lc1" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.princeofwales.gov.uk/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/conjugal-coat-of-arms-2_1.jpg?itok=GuES7lc1" height="267" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Coat of Arms of the&nbsp;Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Quite fetching, if you ask me.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Recently the young Duke and Duchess have returned to the news. Their Royal Highnesses have just returned to the UK following a successful tour of Australia and New Zealand. I have been hugely encouraged by figures showing that <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-10/republic-monarchy-vote-compass/5012360">support for the monarchy is strong among 18-34 year old Australians.</a>&nbsp;This bodes well for the long-term security of Australia's monarchy. It is also encouraging to see how well the Duchess of Cambridge has settled in to her royal role; comparisons to her late mother-in-law Diana, the Princess of Wales, have been rife in the British press. That said, I often think such comparisons are unfair and place a great deal of pressure on the Duchess to live up to her mother-in-law's illustrious&nbsp;reputation, which has cast a long shadow over royal life ever since her tragic loss in 1997. <br /><br />All in all, it has been&nbsp;a royal&nbsp;whirlwind for the last three years, but our future King and Queen have weathered it well. Republicanism remains a damp squib across the commonwealth realms. This month our Sovereign celebrated her 88th birthday, and Her Majesty shows no signs of slowing down. I'm sure her subjects the world over will join me in wishing Her Majesty many years on the British throne and the thrones of her other territories (and seeing as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother made it to the grand old age of 102, who knows how long our current monarch will reign), but it is comforting to see the affection afforded by those subjects to Her Majesty's eventual successors. Fate allowing, some day I may be blessed to see the coronation of King William V and his queen, Catherine. 'Till then, three cheers for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge!<br /><br />Hip, hip, hooray!<br />Hip, hip, hooray!<br />Hip, hip, hooray!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/y9xoUIP9g54?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-63153278298894293702014-04-10T03:20:00.001-07:002014-04-10T03:20:52.221-07:00Battle of Midtskogen<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9ggEN6C-DT4/U0Zvyrh5dWI/AAAAAAAAADU/Fg9nCGkGIJM/s1600/H7_cor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9ggEN6C-DT4/U0Zvyrh5dWI/AAAAAAAAADU/Fg9nCGkGIJM/s1600/H7_cor.jpg" height="198" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Their Majesties King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway in<br />their coronation attire</td></tr></tbody></table>Today is the 74th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Midtskogen in the Kingdom of Norway, when Nazi German forces under the command of Eberhard Spiller attempted to capture the King of Norway, Haakon VII, and his cabinet in order to force Norway into submission. The Norwegian force consisted of one rifle company of the King's Guards, the unit of the Norwegian Army responsible for the defence of Norway's monarch, and a number of volunteers primarily from local rifle clubs. The German force consisted of a small raiding party of paratroopers. The battle ended in a victory for the Norwegian forces, the Nazis failing to capture the King so he and his cabinet were able to escape to the United Kingdom and form a government in exile rather than be turned into a puppet of the occupying German Army. Casualties were light on both sides- two Germans were killed and only three Norwegians wounded- but this was a great moral victory for Norway.<br /><br />The Germans invaded the Kingdom in 1940 despite Norway declaring independence at the outset of the war as Norway was of great strategic importance to both sides. Controlling Norway secured the Germans' supply of iron ore from Sweden, and also allowed Germany to use its sea power more effectively. Air raids on the United Kingdom were also conducted from captured German airfields. And, ridiculous as it seems in retrospect, the Nazis feared that the British would launch their own invasion of Scandinavia, which would give the Royal Navy the ability to strike the German <em>Kriegsmarine</em> in the Baltic. Approximately 6,602 Norwegian and Allied troops died, were injured or went missing while defending Norway from the German invasion, and around 400 Norwegian civilians were also killed in the crossfire; the Germans lost 5,296 troops. The Norwegian Armed Forces in Exile and the underground Norwegian Resistance would continue to fight for Norwegian liberation against the Third Reich until the end of the war. On this anniversary, I wish to join the people of Norway in celebrating the safe delivery&nbsp;of their King to Great Britain and the ultimate victory of the Allies against the Third Reich, and in commemorating those who gave their lives for the cause of Norwegian liberty. A Norwegian diplomat, Halvard Lange, once said&nbsp; "We do not regard Englishmen as foreigners. We look on them only as rather mad Norwegians." If that is the case I can proudly call myself a mad Norwegian, and so raise a toast to "our" King. <br /><br /><span class="hps"><em><span class="hps">Lenge leve kongen</span><span>! Enig og tro til Dovre faller!</span></em></span><br /><span class="hps"><em><span></span></em></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/nLjIyL4gWtg?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><span class="hps"><em><span></span></em></span>The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-52437377980345941442014-04-09T06:25:00.000-07:002014-04-09T06:25:58.514-07:00The United Kingdom, Ireland and President Higgins' State VisitHis Excellency the President of Ireland (or, in Irish Gaelic, <em><span class="hps">a</span> <span class="hps">Shoilse</span> <span class="hps">an t-Uachtarán</span> </em><span class="hps"><em>na hÉireann</em>) yesterday <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26932969">made the first ever formal&nbsp;state visit by an Irish head of state to the United Kingdom</a>, being Her Majesty's guest at Windsor Castle. Both the President and the Queen made speeches, with the Queen's speech being particularly enjoyable for monarchists due to her beginning by paying tribute to the "greatest of Ireland's High Kings," Brian Boru, who died in battle one hundred years ago this month. The High King, who styled himself "Emperor of the Irish," was tragically killed by fleeing Norsemen as they stumbled upon his tent after he led Irish forces to victory against them in the Battle of Clontarf. His death was one of those fateful moments which may well have altered the course of history in ways we cannot guess, and Ireland collapsed once more into a loose association of squabbling petty kingdoms. </span><br /><span class="hps"></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FaGpX8VAVQ0/U0VIDWtDfJI/AAAAAAAAACw/q5GL3-3odmc/s1600/King_George_VI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FaGpX8VAVQ0/U0VIDWtDfJI/AAAAAAAAACw/q5GL3-3odmc/s1600/King_George_VI.jpg" height="320" width="208" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George VI, the last King of Ireland</td></tr></tbody></table><span class="hps">Of course, the final monarch of all Ireland was the Queen's own father,&nbsp;His Majesty King George VI, who was monarch of both Northern Ireland (as part of the United Kingdom) and what is now the Republic of Ireland (then the Irish Free State) until 1949. Today, unfortunately, monarchy is regarded in Ireland as permanently "tainted" by association with British colonial rule. Ironically, <span dir="auto">Sinn Féin itself was once a staunchly monarchist party calling for a dual monarchy in the British Isles based on the model of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This only changed following the Easter Rising, the leadership of which were much more radical than the then-leadership of <span dir="auto">Sinn Féin. Unfortunately the rising was mislabelled as an "<span dir="auto">Sinn Féin Rising" by the press, <span dir="auto">Sinn Féin members were unfairly blamed and persecuted, </span>and nationalists&nbsp;rallied under the banner of <span dir="auto">Sinn Féin calling for an independent Irish Republic; all of this, despite King George V personally criticising the Government's response to the Rising. </span></span></span></span></span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LF0gjR1_HZI/U0VJoh1ynnI/AAAAAAAAADE/n01ScrTeN9U/s1600/800px-'Battle_of_Clontarf',_oil_on_canvas_painting_by_Hugh_Frazer,_1826.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LF0gjR1_HZI/U0VJoh1ynnI/AAAAAAAAADE/n01ScrTeN9U/s1600/800px-'Battle_of_Clontarf',_oil_on_canvas_painting_by_Hugh_Frazer,_1826.jpg" height="219" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1826 oil painting of the Battle of Clontarf, by Hugh Frazer</td></tr></tbody></table><span class="hps"><span dir="auto"><span dir="auto"><span dir="auto"><span dir="auto">I could go into more detail about my thoughts on the Easter Rising, and on subsequent Irish history; in some future post I probably will do so.&nbsp;However, what is past is past- the core message of both Her Majesty and President Higgins' speeches yesterday- and now is a time for looking to the future. Although it is, to my mind, regrettable that history did not transpire differently and that Ireland is not today a united, self-governing kingdom in personal union with Great Britain and with Queen Elizabeth II as its beloved High Queen, the state visit yesterday and the Queen's recent state visit to Ireland are encouraging signs of rapprochement between the Republic and the United Kingdom. The only blot in the landscape as I see it was the presence of Martin McGuinness, currently Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and former Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army. The fact that this terrorist who was among the IRA's leadership when they murdered the Queen's cousin Lord Mountbatten (a memorial to whom the President visited and laid a wreath at yesterday) was allowed to sit at Her Majesty's table does not sit comfortably with me, nor do I expect it sits comfortably with the survivors and families of the victims of the IRA's terror campaigns; especially so soon after there was public outrage over the pardon of IRA members who took part in terrorist activities, including John Downey, a suspect in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing, <a href="http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/ira-hyde-park-bombing-suspect-john-downey-walks-free-after-reckless-error-by-prosecution-30041673.html">who was handed a pardon as the result of an "error."</a> Meanwhile, a paratrooper involved in the events of "Bloody Sunday" complains that a promise of anonymity he received in return for giving detailed evidence in a previous enquiry&nbsp;has been <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2571077/Bloody-Sunday-soldier-Why-I-face-trial-Hyde-Park-bomb-suspect-goes-free.html">revoked by a new police inquiry.</a></span></span></span></span></span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gldSxc_vIs0/U0VI1jcmrbI/AAAAAAAAAC4/Hv77sGoAxs8/s1600/_74109477_021833540-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gldSxc_vIs0/U0VI1jcmrbI/AAAAAAAAAC4/Hv77sGoAxs8/s1600/_74109477_021833540-1.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland, meets Her Majesty the Queen and <br />His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh</td></tr></tbody></table><span lang="ga" xml:lang="ga">Despite this controversy, on the whole the <em>Uachtarán's </em>state visit- I think I prefer the Irish name to the English word, although <em>Ard Rí </em>would be preferable- has been a success. Hopefully more such visits will follow, and in time past wounds will heal as the peoples of the British Isles become not merely good neighbours, but steadfast friends and allies. As&nbsp;Mr. Higgins, a poet and clearly a natural one,&nbsp;put it, "Ireland and Britain live in both the shadow and in the shelter of one another, and so it has been since the dawn of history. We celebrate what has been achieved but we must also constantly renew our commitment to a process that requires vigilance and care."</span><span class="hps"><span dir="auto"><span dir="auto"><span dir="auto"><span dir="auto"></span></span></span></span></span><br />The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6929701326679889965.post-5030577010830857392014-04-06T15:19:00.000-07:002014-04-10T02:37:58.681-07:00For Queen and Country<br />This is the first post I have ever made to my first ever blog, so naturally I want to start by thanking anyone who actually takes the time to read this. If you are reading this, you may well have worked out by now the nature of this blog- this is the blog of a proud British patriot, monarchist and traditionalist, and is written from that point of view. My ambition is simply to add my voice to a growing chorus calling for Western civilization to revisit the values it has largely turned its back on; social hierarchy, chivalry, faith, loyalty, sustainability, localism and above all the basis of all great civilisations, the monarchy. At the same time, I wish to highlight which voices amidst the chorus represent true wisdom and which would lead us all down a very dark path indeed- the mantle of traditionalism has been usurped increasingly in recent times by those who subscribe to decidedly unsavoury ideas of racial supremacism, authoritarianism and ultra-nationalism.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Confucius_Statue_at_the_Yushima_Seido.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Confucius_Statue_at_the_Yushima_Seido.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of people, all must consider the <br />cultivation of the person the root of everything besides." - Confucius</td></tr></tbody></table>Although I have a particular interest, in light of the Scottish secession referendum fast approaching us, in promoting Scottish monarchism and British unionism by promoting knowledge of and interest in Scotland's rich royal past and countering the arguments of nationalists and republicans, I have no intention of limiting the scope of this blog to Scotland or even to the British Isles. Throughout the world there are grave injustices to be righted, great civilisations crumbling and solutions from history and tradition that are being overlooked. More than any other thinker, Confucius has influenced my view of the proper organisation of society and the path to becoming a man (or woman) of virtue, and yet today his teachings are being corrupted as a way of propping up the Chinese socialist regime that is responsible for destroying his legacy, all the achievements of some 2,000 years of Imperial rule handwaved with the label of "feudalism." The Islamic world, once a shining beacon of civilisation, of science, faith and good government, is now seen as a backwards, war-torn place by the rest of the world. One hundred years after the start of the war that spelled doom for the House of Romanov, Russia is governed by a former member of the Soviet-era secret police and dominated by organised crime.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-HE1lR1mlb8/SwoqC0GnEEI/AAAAAAAABYA/tBShCt5inY8/s320/adolf_freiherr_von_harnier.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-HE1lR1mlb8/SwoqC0GnEEI/AAAAAAAABYA/tBShCt5inY8/s320/adolf_freiherr_von_harnier.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adolf Freiherr von Harnier, hero of the Bavarian monarchist <br />movement, enemy of the Nazis, and my long time hero.</td></tr></tbody></table>Society today faces some of the greatest challenges humanity as a species has ever been faced with, whether we realise it or not. A growing population is putting increased pressures on &nbsp;finite resources that are inevitably running out; the natural environment is suffering as a result of human activities; morality is becoming unfashionable across the developed world, and a tool of oppression in developing countries; since the 1940s, for the first time in the Earth's history a living organism- us- have possessed the power to cause destruction on a scale previously reserved for Mother Nature, equipped as we now are with nuclear weapons of mass destruction. Never before have we been in greater need of our collective experience and the words of history's wisest men and women to guide us through tumultuous times. The keys to our future lie in the past. It is by looking to the past that we will find our salvation.The King's Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15072180373998425331noreply@blogger.com0